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LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,   N.  J. 
Presented  by 

\ 

BR  85  .L3 

Lawrence,  J.  B.  1873-1968. 

The  biology  of  the  cross 


The  Biology  of  the  Cross 


The  Biology  of 
the  Cross 

Lectures  delivered 

at  the  Southwestern  Baptist 

Theological  Seminary 


By 

J.  BENJAMIN  LAWRENCE,  M.  A. 

Author  of  "Power  for  Service" 


New    York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming     H.     Revell     Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


.    Copyright,  1913,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


Introduction 

THIS  book  undertakes  to  set  forth  the 
fact  that  Christianity  is  life  and  that 
this  life  comes  from  the  Cross.  This 
is  a  message  that  this  age  needs  to  hear.  The 
Cross  is  still  a  stumbling-block  to  the  Jew  and  an 
offense  to  the  Greek.  A  great  deal  of  present 
day  religion  can  see  no  saving  power  in  the  Cross. 
A  suffering  Saviour  is  no  Saviour  at  all  to 
twentieth  century  Pharisaism.  It  even  rejects 
the  doctrine  of  the  Cross  as  unethical.  It  is  not 
just  for  one  man  to  suffer  for  another's  sins. 
And  worldly  wisdom  still  rejects  the  doctrine 
of  the  Cross  as  foolishness.  But  to  those  who 
are  being  saved  the  Cross  is  still  the  power  of 
God  and  the  wisdom  of  God. 

It  would  be  well  if  Christianity  to-day  could 
say  with  Paul  more  emphatically  :  "  God  forbid 
that  I  should  glory  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."  The  Cross  to  Paul  did  not  stand 
simply  for  a  martyr's  death.  It  was  the  symbol 
of  a  redeeming  act  upon  the  part  of  the  Lord 
of  Glory.  It  stood  for  an  act  of  grace  in  which 
one  who  existed  from  eternity  in  the  form  of 
God  and  on  equality  with  God  voluntarily  sur- 
rendered Himself  to  death  on  the  Cross  for  the 

5 


6  Introduction 

redemption  of  man.  This  doctrine  of  the  Cross 
was  to  Paul  the  central  thing  in  the  Gospel. 
"  Jesus  and  Him  crucified "  was  the  one  mes- 
sage that  would  save  men.  Any  other  gospel 
was  no  glad  tidings  at  all,  for  it  left  men  under 
the  curse  of  the  law  and  did  not  give  the  liberty 
of  grace.  And  it  is  just  as  true  now  as  then 
that  the  message  of  the  Cross  is  the  pulpit's  one 
message  for  sinning  and  sorrowing  humanity. 
A  view  of  the  Cross  is  the  only  thing  that  will 
lift  the  burden  from  sin-laden  souls. 

Paul  has  been  criticized  for  teaching  a 
doctrine  of  "  legalistic "  justification.  But 
Paul's  doctrine  of  justification  was  not  merely 
legalistic.  It  was  a  "  justification  of  life " 
(Kom.  v.  18).  Since  he  believed  in  God,  he 
believed  that  man  could  not  truly  live  without 
being  in  right  relation  with  God.  And  when  a 
sinner  was  brought  into  right  relation  with  God 
through  faith  in  the  propitiatory  death  of  Christ 
(was  justified)  he  began  to  live.  Being  in 
wrong  relation  with  God  meant  death.  Com- 
ing into  right  relation  with  Him  meant  life 
eternal. 

One  reason  perhaps  why  men  do  not  "  glory 
in  the  cross  "  more  is  because  it  means  to  be 
crucified  to  the  world  and  for  the  world  to  be 
crucified  to  them.  It  necessitates  taking  up 
the  Cross  daily  and  following  Jesus.  The  Cross 
is  not  merely  a  doctrine  to  be  accepted.  It  is 
also  a  power  to  be  experienced.     To  glory  in  the 


Introduction  7 

Cross  one  must  crucify  the  flesh  with  the  affec- 
tions and  lusts  thereof. 

It  is  a  good  sign  that  the  religious  world  is 
turning  its  thought  again  to  the  Cross.  A  new 
appreciation  of  the  Cross  is  the  only  thing  that 
can  keep  the  Church  from  degenerating  into  an 
ethical  culture  club,  a  society  for  social  reform 
or  theological  debates.  The  Cross  is  rightly 
the  symbol  of  Christianity.  It  is  the  Cross  that 
distinguishes  Christianity  from  every  other  re- 
ligion— not  the  Cross,  of  course,  without  Christ, 
nor  Christ  without  the  Cross,  but  Christ  on  the 
Cross.  It  is  Christ  lifted  up  that  is  to  draw 
men. 

Our  Christianity  needs  vitalizing.  This  can 
be  accomplished  only  at  the  Cross.  There  is  a 
world  lying  in  the  wicked  one  to  be  won  and 
saved  for  God.  Only  the  Cross  can  furnish  the 
motive  power  for  such  a  task. 

This  book,  treating  as  it  does  of  two  of  the 
central  ideas  of  Christianity,  the  Cross  and  life, 
and  showing  how  life  comes  from  the  Cross, 
will,  I  believe,  prove  a  vitalizing  agency  to  its 
readers. 

W.  T.  Conner. 

Southwestern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary, 
Fort  Worth,  Tex. 


Contents 

I.  The  Biology  of  the  Cross      .        .  1 1 

II.  Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Human- 

ity          31 

III.  The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life  52 

IV.  The  Psychology  of  Faith       .        .  73 

V.  Spiritual  Growth  ....  94 

VI.  The  Cross  of  Christ  the  Mission 

Imperative 113 


I 

THE  BIOLOGY  OP  THE  CEOSS 

THE  central  figure  in  all  sacred  history 
is  the  Cross  of  Christ.  To  it  the  in- 
dex finger  of  prophecy  turns,  and 
from  it  the  Gospels  gather  their  power  and  in- 
spiration. Koman  soldiers  planted  the  tree  of 
the  Cross  upon  Golgotha,  but  the  crucifixion 
of  our  Lord  is  the  fulfillment  of  prophecy : 
whether  the  acted  prophecy  of  type  or  the 
spoken  prophecy  of  prediction. 

The  earliest  records  of  our  race,  sacred  and 
profane  alike,  represent  man  as  seeking  accept- 
ance with  God  by  means  of  sacrifice.  It  does 
not  matter  whether  this  was  originally  a  divine 
command,  or  whether  the  human  mind  in- 
stinctively perceived  the  fitness  of  the  rite ;  in 
either  case,  the  sacrifice  was  from  the  first  ac- 
cepted, and  as  soon  as  laws  were  given,  was 
regulated  and  required.  Whatever  might  have 
been  the  inspiring  motive  in  the  earlier  sacri- 
fices of  humanity,  there  is  a  plain  recognition 
in  all  of  them  that  man  is  separated  from  God, 
and  that  in  approaching  Him  it  is  necessary  in 
some  way  to  remove  the  intervening  bar  of  hu- 
man sinfulness. 

Sacrifice    was,    therefore,     always    typical. 

ii 


]  2  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

Isaac,  the  only  son  of  Abraham,  bearing  the 
wood  of  the  burnt  offering  to  Mount  Moriah,  is 
a  type  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God  who 
bore  His  Cross  to  the  Mount  of  Crucifixion. 
On  Mount  Moriah  it  was  not  Abraham  but 
God  who  provided  the  ram  for  the  burnt  offer- 
ing, and  when  that  sacred  place  was  called 
"  Jehovah  Jireh,"  the  name  did  not  mean  that 
Jehovah  would  provide  merely  temporal  bless- 
ings for  His  people  ;  but  it  meant  that  the  sac- 
rifice for  sin,  which  man  could  never  furnish, 
would  be  provided  by  God  Himself.  The  Pass- 
over lamb,  whose  blood  sprinkled  upon  the 
lintels  of  the  door  preserved  the  homes  of 
Israel  from  the  destroying  angel  on  the  night 
that  God  smote  the  first-born  of  Egypt,  is  a 
type  of  that  other  Lamb  who  was  sacrificed  on 
the  Cross  for  us.  The  victim  in  the  sin  offering; 
on  the  day  of  atonement  was  a  type  of  that 
perfect  sacrifice  of  Christ,  "  who  through  the 
eternal  Spirit  offered  Himself  without  spot  to 
God."  This  is  the  fact  set  forth  by  Isaiah  in 
that  mountain  peak  of  prophecy  when  he  ex- 
claims: "He  was  wounded  for  our  transgres- 
sions ;  He  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities ;  the 
chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  Him  ;  and 
with  His  stripes  we  are  healed." 

Thus  we  have  limned  on  the  background  of 
sacred  history  foregleams  of  the  Cross.  Yea, 
and  more  than  that.  The  tree  of  pain  was  in 
the  heart  of  God  before  all  time.     Christ  was 


The  Biology  of  the  Cross  13 

the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world.  God  erected  the  Cross.  Above  the 
inscription  of  Pilate  there  was  written  by  the 
linger  of  God  the  real  meaning  of  the  Cross ; 
methinks  I  read  written  there  this  inscription  : 
"  Herein  is  love :  that  while  men  were  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  them." 


The  Cross  is  not  a  creed,  but  a  life-giving 
power.  This  fact  has  been  veiled  by  theology. 
The  theological  systems  which  have  grown  up 
around  the  Gospel  have  monopolized  the  Cross ; 
they  have  lifted  the  Cross  out  of  the  ethical 
setting  of  the  life  of  Jesus  and  planted  it  in  an 
environment  of  doctrine.  They  have  contin- 
uously traced  it  back  to  covenants  and  inserted 
it  into  decrees ;  stated  it,  all  but  exclusively,  in 
terms  of  justification  and  propitiation.  The- 
ology has  one  territory  which  is  theory ;  religion 
has  another  territory  which  is  life ;  and  the 
Cross  belongs  to  religion. 

The  Gospels  do  not  represent  the  Cross  as 
simply  a  judicial  transaction  between  Jesus  and 
God  on  which  not  the  slightest  light  is  thrown, 
but  as  a  vital  force  which  Jesus  introduces  into 
human  life,  and  which  He  declares  will  be  its 
redemption.  "  The  winder  of  the  Cross,"  says 
Dr.  A.  H.  Strong,  "  is  that  it  opens  a  window 
into  heaven,  through  which  we  see  the  central 
fact  of  existence,  the  innermost  secret  of  the 


1 4  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

universe  ;  nay,  the  very  heart  of  God.  There, 
as  in  a  burning-glass,  are  concentrated  all  the 
rays  of  the  Sun  of  Kighteousness,  and  there  the 
God,  who  daily  beareth  our  burdens,  took  to 
Himself  our  sorrows  and  death  that  we  might 
be  free.  But  Christ's  Cross  did  not  reveal  the 
judging,  suffering  and  saving  God  as  a  mere 
objective  show.  Its  aim  was  to  declare  the 
essential  principle  of  all  true  life,  and  to  re- 
produce that  life  in  us.  In  Christ,  who  was 
stretched  upon  that  Cross,  we  see  the  pattern 
and  beginning  of  a  new  humanity." 

The  Cross  may  be  made  into  a  doctrine  of 
theology,  but  Jesus  spoke  of  it  as  the  regener- 
ation of  man.  There  are  two  kinds  of  religion 
offered  for  the  relief  of  man.  One  gives  a 
formula,  a  creed,  to  be  accepted;  the  other 
gives  a  life  to  be  received.  The  religion  of 
Jesus  is  the  religion  of  life,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  understand  the  relation  subsisting  between 
Him  and  humanity  without  viewing  that  rela- 
tion in  the  light  of  the  term  "  life." 

Jesus  is  indeed  the  greatest  teacher  the  world 
has  ever  produced,  but  He  is  vastly  more  than 
a  teacher.  He  is  the  greatest  religious  genius 
that  has  ever  appeared  among  men,  but  His 
supreme  work  for  the  race  was  not  simply  the 
organization  of  a  new  religious  movement  and 
the  formulation  of  a  new  creed.  The  very 
heart  of  His  efforts  for  humanity  centres  not 
so  much  in  His  teaching,  for  He  gives  us  little 


The  Biology  of  the  Cross  15 

that  is  new  in  the  realm  of  religious  thought, 
but  His  work  for  the  race  centres  in  His  Cross. 
The  Mount  of  the  Sermon  is  not  the  pulpit 
from  which  He  speaks  His  tenderest  message 
to  man,  but  the  Mount  of  Calvary  is.  The 
Cross  tongues  with  more  eloquent  pathos  the 
heart  of  His  mission,  the  soul  of  His  attitude 
towards  the  race,  than  does  the  most  eloquent 
passages  from  His  tenderest  sermons.  In  fact 
His  teaching  finds  its  key  and  explanation  in 
the  Cross. 

The  reason  for  this  is  that  Christ  did  not 
come  primarily  to  instruct  men,  but  to  save 
them.  What  the  race  needed  was  not  infor- 
mation but  redemption.  This  Christ  secured 
through  the  Cross.  He  died  for  sinners,  and 
ever  since  His  Cross  has  been  the  sign  of  rescue 
for  the  race.  Whatever  may  be  the  nature  of 
that  sublime  transaction  upon  Calvary;  what- 
ever the  name  by  which  men  may  call  it, — 
Atonement,  Sacrifice,  Kedemption,  Propitiation; 
whatever  relation  it  may  have  to  the  moral  law 
and  to  the  divine  righteousness, — its  relation 
to  the  human  heart  is  luminous  and  beautiful. 
It  takes  away  sin.  On  Christ  Jesus,  in  His  life 
and  in  His  death,  were  laid  the  guilt  and  the 
consequences  of  a  world's  sin.  Standing  solid 
in  the  centre  of  human  history  is  the  Cross  of 
Christ  as  the  symbol  of  a  world's  redemption. 
Jesus  comes  to  save  the  world.  He  saves  it 
by  giving  it  life.     He  unites  in  one  life  the 


16  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

kingdoms  of  Himself  and  me.  By  one  costly 
outpouring  of  Himself  He  created  a  divine 
environment  for  me.  When  we  come  to  study 
this  life-relationship  to  Him,  a  relation  sealed 
and  vitalized  by  the  Cross,  we  pass  beyond  the 
sphere  of  theology  and  enter  the  kingdom  of 
biology. 

II 

It  may  seem  at  first  a  contradiction  of  ideas 
to  set  the  Cross  in  a  field  of  life.  But  in  the 
thought  of  Jesus  the  Cross  is  planted  in  an 
environment  of  life.  "I,  if  I  be  lifted  up," 
says  He,  "  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me."  This 
4 'lifting  up"  must  refer  to  His  crucifixion  on 
the  Cross,  and  yet  He  does  not  hesitate  to  say, 
"  I  came  that  they  might  have  life,  and  have  it 
more  abundantly."  The  Cross  stands  to  the 
life  that  He  is  to  give  as  cause  to  effect. 

In  the  history  of  redemption  the  Cross  is  the 
token  of  our  Lord's  obedience  unto  death ;  the 
symbol  of  the  sacrifice  of  His  life  for  the  world. 
This  crucifixion-act,  a  sacrifice  so  patent  and  so 
brilliant  that  it  has  arrested  every  mind,  men 
call  death.  The  philosophies  of  the  world  turn 
away  from  the  Christ  on  the  Cross  saying,  as 
did  the  two  disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus, 
"  We  had  thought  it  was  He  who  would  redeem 
Israel."  This  is  because  men  shrink  from  death, 
and  they  see  in  the  Cross  only  death.  But  in 
the  mind  of  God  the  Cross  is  the  symbol  of 


The  Biology  of  the  Cross  1 7 

life.  With  God,  as  Jesus  revealed  Him,  life  is 
an  eternal  procession  of  gifts,  a  costly  outpour- 
ing of  self,  an  unwearied  sacrifice  of  love.  The 
mystery  of  life,  divine  and  human,  is  con- 
tained in  these  words  of  Jesus :  "  Yerily,  verily, 
I  say  unto  you,  except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall 
into  the  ground  it  abideth  alone,  but  if  it  die, 
it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit.  He  that  loveth 
his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  hateth  his  life 
in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal." 
This  is  the  mystery  of  being.  This  mystery  is 
twofold :  first,  the  life,  the  living  force  which 
was  in  Christ  reached  its  proper  value  and  in- 
fluence through  His  death;  and,  second,  the 
proper  value  of  Christ's  life  is  that  it  propa- 
gates similar  lives. 

This  then  being  the  law  of  life,  Christ  must 
not  only  announce  it,  He  must  observe  and 
enforce  it.  He  speaks  of  Himself  even  more 
directly  than  of  us  when  He  says :  "  He  that 
loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it."  His  disciples 
thought  that  they  had  never  seen  such  promise 
in  His  life  as  at  this  hour:  seed-time  seemed 
to  them  to  be  past,  and  the  harvest  at  hand. 
Their  Master  appeared  to  them  to  be  launched 
on  the  tide  that  was  to  carry  Him  to  the 
highest  pinnacle  of  glory.  And  so  He  was, 
but  not,  as  they  thought,  by  asserting  Himself. 
Christ  saw  with  different  eyes.  He  knew  that 
it  was  a  different  exaltation  from  that  they 
dreamed  of  which  would  win  for  Him  lasting 


18  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

sovereignty.  He  knew  the  law  that  governed 
life,  and  so  He  exclaims,  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up, 
will  draw  all  men  unto  Me."  He  knew  that  a 
total  and  absolute  surrender  of  self  to  the  uses 
and  needs  of  others  was  the  one  path  to  per- 
manent life,  and  that  in  His  case  this  absolute 
surrender  involved  death.  His  death,  like  the 
dissolution  of  the  seed,  seemed  to  terminate 
His  work,  but  really  it  was  its  germination. 
So  long  as  He  lived,  it  was  but  His  single 
strength  that  was  used ;  He  abode  alone.  There 
was  great  virtue  in  His  life  while  He  lived, — 
great  power  for  the  healing,  the  instruction,  the 
elevation  of  mankind.  But  it  was  not  until 
after  His  death  that  the  full  power  of  His  life 
came  upon  men.  On  the  Cross  a  change  passed 
upon  Him  which  disengaged  the  vital  forces 
which  were  in  Him ;  a  change  which  thawed 
the  springs  of  life  in  Him  and  let  them  flow 
forth  to  all.  It  was  on  the  Cross  that  He 
poured  out  His  life  unto  death  and  by  that  act 
put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself.  It 
was  on  the  Cross  that  He  triumphed  over  the 
powers  of  evil,  destroyed  the  dominion  of  death, 
and  opened  a  new  fountain  of  life.  And  now 
His  Cross  has  become  the  glory  of  Christianity. 
It  is  the  seat  from  which  He  teaches  His  high- 
est lessons,  the  throne  of  His  power  as  King  in 
the  universe.  Of  all  the  aspects  and  relations 
in  which  Christ  appears  to  us,  the  primary  one 
is  that  of  the  Cross. 


The  Biology  of  the  Cross  1 9 

III 

But  Christ  is,  above  all  else,  the  giver  of  a 
new  life.  He  was  the  grain  of  divine  wheat 
which  fell  into  the  soil  of  humanity.  The 
dying  necessary  to  a  new  life  took  place  upon 
the  Cross.  That  divine  human  transaction  ac- 
complished two  fundamental  things.  On  the 
one  hand,  it  broke  down  the  barriers  of  death ; 
on  the  other  hand,  it  planted  in  the  human 
kingdom  a  new-life  germ. 

Next  to  life  the  most  pregnant  symbol  in 
religion  is  its  antithesis,  death.  From  the 
time  Jehovah  God  said,  "  The  day  thou  eatest 
thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die,"  this  solemn  word 
has  been  linked  with  human  interests  of  eternal 
moment.  Death,  in  the  human  life  kingdom,  is 
the  barrier  that  stands  between  man  and  that 
experience  called  eternal  life.  This  death  is 
connected  with  sin.  "  Wherefore  as  by  one 
man  sin  entered  into  the  world  and  death  by 
sin ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that 
all  have  sinned."  Men  are  not  in  peril  of  death, 
they  are  in  the  inmost  sense  and  truth  of  things 
dead.  As  our  bodies  live  by  being  in  corre- 
spondence with  the  light  and  air  and  food 
under  the  economy  of  material  nature,  so  our 
spirits  live  by  correspondence,  through  faith 
and  love,  with  the  unseen  and  eternal.  Hence, 
the  man  who  walks  the  earth  a  rebellious  sinner 
against  God  is  separated  from  God  and  becomes 
in  consequence  a  dead  man.     The  doom  of  sin 


20  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

lies  on  his  unforgiven  spirit.  He  carries  death 
and  judgment  about  with  him.  Within  his 
living  frame  he  bears  a  coffined  soul.  There 
can  be  no  life  for  that  man  until  sin  is  dealt 
with  and  the  barriers  of  death  broken  down. 

This  is  the  work  of  the  Cross.  God  hates 
sin,  but  loves  the  sinner.  God  hates  death.  It 
is  foreign  to  His  nature ;  it  is  an  intruder  into 
His  kingdom.  But  humanity  cannot  be  re- 
deemed from  the  power  of  sin  and  the  kingdom 
of  death  without  the  self -vindication  of  justice. 
The  race  is  under  the  power  of  death  because 
of  sin,  and  sin,  according  to  the  eternal  law  of 
God,  must  be  punished.  In  the  Cross  we  see, 
first  of  all,  God's  judgment  upon  human  sin. 

So  the  Cross  is  the  sign  of  the  awful  tragedy 
of  sin,  of  the  revolt  of  the  race  against  God,  of 
the  blasphemous  suicide  of  the  human  soul  in 
the  Garden  of  Eden.  But  it  is  a  sign  in  which 
there  is  the  promise  of  triumph  and  victory. 
That  victory  is  won  in  the  death  of  the  Cross. 
God  did  not  merely  come  as  Messiah  to  lead, 
by  His  example,  humanity  to  triumph,  that 
were  impossible ;  but  He  came  to  stand  by  the 
side  of  fallen  man,  to  walk  calmly  with  him 
the  way  of  shame,  to  step  fearlessly  into  that 
death  which  is  the  wages  of  sin  so  that  the  race 
might  be  redeemed  from  sin  and  death.  The 
Cross  then  suddenly  irradiates  light — a  lurid, 
painful,  awful  light  at  first,  a  light  that  shines 
in  the  death  of  the  Holy  One  upon  the  Cross 


The  Biology  of  the  Cross  2 1 

for  human  sin.  This  suffering,  this  shame, 
this  association  of  Himself  with  sinful  man  is 
redemptive.  Its  object  lies  far  beyond  the 
Cross  itself.  It  is  the  universal  love  of  God 
that  suddenly,  with  dramatic  flashing  vividness, 
bursts  into  human  life  to  transform  and  to  save. 
Christ  was  one  with  the  race.  He  was  the 
central  heart  and  conscience  of  the  race.  He 
felt  the  awful  load  of  guilt  that  bore  the  guilty 
race  down  and  bowed  beneath  the  sentence  of 
righteousness.  Even  our  half -developed  con- 
science demands  a  God  who  hates  and  punishes 
sin,  and  we  can  worship  and  respect  no  other. 
Christ's  conscience  went  farther,  He  saw  that 
He  Himself  must  suffer  because  He  was  one 
with  the  sinful  race.  He  saw  in  the  pain, 
misery  and  death  of  mankind  the  marks  of  the 
divine  anger,  and  He  took  that  pain,  misery, 
and  death  into  His  own  bosom.  He  saw  the 
wrath  of  God  revealed  from  heaven  against 
human  iniquity,  and  He  opened  wide  His  arms 
to  receive  its  shock  and  to  shield  His  brethren. 
From  the  first  day  of  human  transgression  there 
had  been  gathering  a  cloud  of  just  indignation. 
It  culminated  when  the  heavens  grew  dark  at 
Christ's  crucifixion.  But  out  of  that  darkness 
emerged  a  triumphant  Saviour-Man  ;  out  of  that 
darkness  came  the  revelation  once  for  all  of  the 
holiness  of  God ;  out  of  that  darkness  came  the 
revelation  that  God  must  first  be  just  before 
He  can  be  merciful.     Any  scheme  of  theology 


22  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

which  leaves  out  the  Cross  may  be  an  applica- 
tion of  Christianity,  but  it  is  not  Christianity 
itself ;  for  Christianity  is  essentially  union  with 
the  crucified  and  risen  Christ. 


IV 

Christianity  is  the  outflow  of  the  Cross,  and 
Christianity  is  life.  We  have  failed  in  theology 
to  grip  the  souls  of  men  because  we  have  tried 
to  press  into  creeds  and  definitions  the  opera- 
tions of  the  vital  forces  in  the  kingdom  of 
grace.  Definitions  here,  if  not  impossible,  are 
at  least  dangerous.  They  have  an  inherent 
tendency  to  substitute  themselves  for  the  things 
defined.  The  terms  in  which  the  fact  is  ex- 
pressed creep  into  the  place  of  the  fact  itself. 
The  reality  is  removed  insensibly  to  a  remote 
distance  behind  the  verbal  symbols  which  rep- 
resent it.  The  way  of  access  to  it  is  blocked 
and  its  influence  is  restricted  by  the  forms  of 
expression  invented  to  define  it.  Thus  the 
creeds  and  confessions  and  definitions  which 
theologians  have  used  to  set  forth  to  the  world 
the  operations  of  divine  grace — those  operations 
in  which  the  living  powers  present  in  the  world 
and  at  work  for  the  world's  redemption  mani- 
fest themselves — have  to  a  large  extent  covered 
and  hidden  the  vital  elements  in  Christianity  so 
that  it  has  become  a  mystical  system  instead  of 
a  revealed  life. 


The  Biology  of  the  Cross  23 

When  we  come  into  the  kingdom  of  the 
Cross  we  are  not  dealing  with  formulas  but 
with  vital  forces.  The  Cross  was  planted  upon 
Golgotha  that  men  might  have  life.  Life  was 
the  burden  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  He  did 
not  set  Himself  to  tell  men  how  to  organize 
the  state  or  how  to  formulate  a  system  of  the- 
ology. This  was  not  because  Jesus  was  not 
interested  in  these  things,  but  because  He  rec- 
ognized that  back  of  these  things  there  was  a 
vital  principle  at  work  building  states  and 
commonwealths  and  evolving  systems  of  the- 
ology. Back  of  the  state  was  the  individual, 
back  of  the  individual  is  the  soul,  and  the  one 
supreme  element  of  soul  is  life.  Touch  and 
change  the  life  and  you  have  given  a  new 
course  to  the  being,  you  have  given  a  new  ex- 
pression, a  new  character  to  the  soul.  This 
Jesus  knew.  He  knew  that  the  only  way  to 
make  the  body  politic  alive  was  to  regenerate 
the  individual.  Thus,  when  He  touched  the 
life  of  humanity  and  erected  the  Cross  in  the 
heart  of  human  history  as  the  sign  of  the  de- 
struction of  sin  and  death  He  created  a  new 
life-force  destined  ultimately  to  transform  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  into  the  kingdom  of 
Jehovah  God.  When  he  opened  the  way 
through  the  Cross  for  individual  redemption 
He  laid  the  basis  for  the  ultimate  salvation  of 
all  civilization.  When  He  brought  life  and 
immortality  to  light  through  the  Cross  He  es- 


24  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

tablished  a  new  divine  environment  for  man 
and  fertilized  human  nature  to  its  farthest 
border. 

The  New  Testament  conception  of  Christian- 
ity  is  life,  but  it  is  life  through  the  Cross.  To 
the  apostles  the  Christian  was  a  new  creature, 
a  new  being.  The  current  conception  of  Chris- 
tianity as  we  find  it  in  the  inspired  record  is 
expressed  in  terms  of  life.  It  was  after  the 
age  of  inspiration  had  closed  and  the  age  of 
theology  had  begun  that  men  began  to  seek 
the  origin  of  Christianity  among  the  philos- 
ophies. And  it  does  not  seem  to  occur  to  the 
scholars  of  to-day  who  continue  to  contrast  it 
with  human  philosophies  of  the  past  and  scheme 
to  fit  it  into  philosophies  of  later  growth,  that 
it  is  much  more  than  a  philosophy,  that  it  in- 
cludes a  science,  a  biology  pure  and  simple. 

The  apostles  understood  Christ  to  mean,  in 
His  teaching,  literal  life  and  not  simply  a  new 
state  of  being  or  a  new  condition  of  being, 
though  these  are  included.  When  He  said,  "  I 
came  that  they  might  have  life  and  have  it 
more  abundantly,"  they  understood  Him  to 
mean  a  new  vital  entity.  The  apostolic  belief 
is  defined  by  Reuss  as  "  the  idea  of  a  real  exist- 
ence, an  existence  such  as  is  proper  to  God ;  an 
imperishable  existence, — that  is  to  say  not  sub- 
ject to  the  vicissitudes  and  imperfections  of 
the  finite  world."  This  primary  idea  is  repeat- 
edly presented  at  least  in  the  negative  form. 


The  Biology  of  the  Cross  25 

It  leads  to  a  doctrine  of  immortality,  or,  to 
speak  more  correctly,  of  life,  far  surpassing 
any  that  had  been  expressed  in  the  formulas  of 
the  current  philosophy  and  theology,  and  rest- 
ing upon  promises  and  conceptions  altogether 
different.  The  idea  of  life  as  it  is  composed 
in  this  system  implies  the  idea  of  power,  an 
operation,  a  communication,  since  this  life  no 
longer  remains,  so  to  speak,  latent  or  passive  in 
God  and  in  the  Word,  but  through  them  reaches 
the  believer.  It  is  not  a  mental,  somnolent 
thing ;  it  is  not  a  plant  without  fruit ;  it  is  a 
germ  which  is  to  find  fullest  development. 

This  life  which  Christ  brings  into  the  world 
and  which  He  makes  possible  for  all  men  is  the 
product  of  His  sacrifice  upon  the  Cross.  With 
a  soul  that  is  sinful  and  hence  spiritually  dead 
life  cannot  begin  until  there  is  deliverance. 
Jesus,  as  the  Physician  of  the  soul,  had  first  to 
deal  not  with  growth  but  with  deformity,  with 
sin  and  death ;  and  Jesus,  who  alone  has  an- 
alyzed sin,  has  alone  prescribed  its  cure.  When 
He  cried  out  on  the  Cross,  "  It  is  finished,"  it 
was  then  that  the  gates  of  death  were  broken 
down.  With  the  reign  of  death  broken,  all 
those  who  had  been  held  under  its  power  were 
given  access  to  the  kingdom  of  life.  This  right 
Christ  purchased.  After  the  tribute  of  His 
voluntary  expiation  death  had  no  more  domin- 
ion over  Him,  and  through  Him  no  more 
dominion  over  those  who  accept  His  sacrifice. 


26  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

When  Christ  offered  up  Himself  wrath  to  the 
uttermost  was  spent  upon  human  sin.  The 
shafts  of  death  were  forever  shattered.  He 
triumphed  in  His  death  over  death.  Not  only 
so,  but  that  His  victory  might  be  complete  we 
are  informed  by  two  of  the  apostles  that  Christ 
triumphantly  descended  into  the  lower  world 
and  took  formal  possession  of  the  kingdom  of 
the  dead.  "Now  that  He  ascended,"  says 
Paul,  "  what  is  it  but  that  He  also  descended 
(first)  into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth  ?"  whence, 
in  the  strong  figure  of  Scripture,  "  He  led  cap- 
tivity captive."  Triumphing  over  all  the 
enemies  of  our  salvation — sin,  death,  and 
Satan — in  His  Cross ;  having  asserted  His  au- 
thority and  Lordship  over  the  kingdom  of  death 
and  the  grave,  Christ  comes  forth  triumphing 
and  triumphant.  This  triumph  was  won 
through  the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross,  which  sac- 
rifice clears  away  the  old  obstructions  between 
God  and  man,  sets  up  a  new  series  of  conditions 
under  which  it  is  possible  for  the  divine  power 
to  operate,  introduces  into  the  world  a  new 
all-mastering  energy,  and  plants  within  the 
individual  believer  a  new  life  consciously  de- 
pendent upon  God  and  controlled  and  borne 
along  by  an  infinite  and  resistless  force.  It 
was  through  the  Cross  that  the  wall  of  par- 
tition was  broken  down  between  God  and  man 
and  the  divine-human  type  of  life,  through  re- 
generation, made  possible. 


The  Biology  of  the  Cross  27 

V 

The  Cross  is  planted  firmly  in  the  history  of 
humanity  as  the  sacrificial  cause  of  spiritual 
life.  What  man  could  not  do  for  himself  God 
did  for  him,  preparing  the  atonement  in  His 
own  eternal  nature  and  offering,  as  a  gift,  sal- 
vation and  life.  Christ  is  the  sacrifice  for  sin. 
As  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans  He  is  the  end 
of  the  law  for  righteousness ;  so,  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  He  is  the  end  of  the  sacrifices 
for  eternal  salvation. 

But  let  us  remember  that  it  was  a  son  of  the 
race  as  well  as  the  Son  of  God  who  was  sacri- 
ficed. Hence  the  Cross  stands  solid  in  the  centre 
of  human  life.  This  is  as  it  should  be.  If  sin 
is  a  principle  in  man's  life,  then  it  is  evident 
that  it  cannot  be  effected  by  a  simple  historical 
act  exhibited  from  without ;  it  must  be  met  by 
an  opposing  principle  from  within.  This  con- 
dition the  Cross  meets.  Nothing  that  belongs 
to  the  incarnate  history  of  Jesus  can  be  regarded 
as  terminating  in  Himself.  He  was  not  man 
for  His  own  sake ;  had  He  joined  us  for  His  own 
glory  His  alliance  with  the  race  would  not  have 
been  by  incarnation  and  birth  into  its  dying 
lineage.  He  became  man  that  He  might  give 
to  us  what  He  needed  not  for  Himself.  The 
incarnation  was  the  method  of  His  approach  to 
the  Cross.  Remembering  that  the  Redeemer's 
duty  was  His  passion,  and  that  in  His  example 
as  proposed  to  us  this  is  always  prominent,  we 


28  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

can  see  the  force  of  Peter's  words,  "  Christ  also 
hath  once  suffered  for  sin,  the  just  for  the  un- 
just." 

But  the  Christ  that  suffered  was  a  member 
of  the  race.  Humanity  in  Him  was  being 
reconciled  to  God  by  this  oblation.  We  are 
Christ's  and  Christ  is  ours.  The  Redeemer  was 
not  His  own,  but  our  possession.  He  gave 
Himself  to  us  before  He  gave  Himself  for  us. 
When  He  obeyed  unto  a  sacrificial  death  He  un- 
did our  sin.  He  was  our  Redeeming  Repre- 
sentative ;  our  Sin-offering  and  Burnt-offering  in 
one.  But  let  us  remember  that  He  is  the  Son 
of  Man  as  well  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  in 
Him  humanity  is  meeting  the  divine  satisfac- 
tion for  sin.  His  death  includes  our  death. 
The  Cross  marks  the  end  of  the  old  humanity 
and  the  beginning  of  a  new  human  family  with 
Christ  as  the  spiritual  head.  The  death  of  the 
Christ  on  the  Cross  is  the  life  of  the  soul  of 
man  in  the  new  kingdom. 

The  Cross  is  also  the  method  of  development 
for  the  soul.  Christian  fellowship  and  service 
are  products  of  the  Cross,  and,  for  us  as  for 
Christ,  there  is  no  glory  except  through  suffer- 
ing. Close  fellowship  with  God  has  always 
proven  a  costly,  self-sacrificing  service.  A  life 
of  carelessness  is  to  nature  and  self  the  sweetest, 
but  it  is  not  the  best.  Christ's  life  of  sacrifice 
is  the  most  bitter  of  all,  but  it  is  to  be  preferred 
above  all.     God  laid  a  world-sin  on  a  world- 


The  Biology  of  the  Cross  29 

soul  in  order  that  the  soul  of  the  world  might 
enter  into  His  own  divine  experience  and  be 
saved  with  an  everlasting  salvation.  Progress 
is  made  by  suffering,  and,  like  every  other  great 
fundamental  principle  of  life,  this  is  embodied 
in  the  economy  of  human  nature  and  confirmed 
by  the  sweep  of  human  history.  The  Cross  is 
the  condition  of  every  achievement.  Jesus  re- 
mains forever  the  convincing  illustration  of  this 
severe  formula.  In  His  own  life-history  He  was 
the  grain  of  divine  wheat  planted  in  human  soil. 
He  must  first  die  before  there  could  be  a  glori- 
ous harvest  of  redeemed  souls.  The  Cross  of 
humiliation  and  death  must  come  or  else  there 
can  be  no  exaltation  and  glory.  Christ  went 
by  the  way  of  the  Cross  because  it  was  the  only 
way  divine  wisdom  could  plan  and  divine  jus- 
tice could  sanction.  It  was  the  only  way  by 
which  life  could  be  brought  to  man.  By 
becoming,  in  His  death,  the  food  of  men's  souls, 
Christ  brought  a  new  life  into  their  souls. 
Over  and  over  again  He  declares  Himself  to  be 
"  the  life  "  and  the  "  source  of  life  "  for  man, 
but  that  life-giving  power  of  His  is  condi- 
tioned on  His  death. 

Christ  has  nothing  to  offer  this  world,  if  it 
would  live,  but  the  Cross.  He  was  willing  to 
undertake  the  salvation  of  every  soul,  but  He 
knew  no  other  way  for  the  soul's  salvation 
except  the  Cross.  As  He  went  to  His  Cross 
for   men's    souls    He   now  calls  upon  men  to 


30  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

follow  His  example.  "  If  any  man  will  be  My 
disciple,  let  him  deny  himself,  take  up  his  cross, 
and  follow  Me."  It  is  only  as  men  are  cruci- 
fied with  Christ,  only  as  they  die  through  His 
Cross  to  self  and  the  world  that  they  rise  again 
to  newness  of  life.  If  His  disciples  wanted  to 
sit  on  His  throne  they  must  drink  of  His  cup 
and  be  baptized  with  the  baptism  of  His  suffering. 
Jesus  did  not  walk  one  way  Himself  and  pro. 
pose  another  way  for  His  disciples,  but  He  in- 
vited them  to  His  experience  if  they  desired 
His  life.  He  nowhere  commands  men  to  cling 
to  His  Cross,  but  He  everywhere  commands 
men  to  carry  His  Cross ;  and  out  of  that  daily 
crucifixion  commanded  there  are  born  the  most 
beautiful  Christian  characters.  This  is  the 
illustration  of  that  selflessness  which  is  the  Law 
of  Holiness,  the  enforcement  of  that  death 
which  is  the  gate  of  life.  There  is  no  salva- 
tion, no  hope  of  everlasting  life  but  in  the 
Cross. 


II 

CHRIST  THE  HEAD  OF  A  NEW  HUMANITY 

THE  Cross  is  made  significant  to  hu- 
manity because  of  the  person  who 
hung  thereon.  If  there  are  forces 
emanating  from  Calvary  working  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  world  it  is  because  of  Him  who  sanc- 
tified with  His  sacrifice  the  cruel  tree.  Had 
there  not  been  on  the  Cross  a  Saviour-Man  then 
the  crucifixion  would  have  been  simply  a  pa- 
thetic tragedy.  But  as  it  is  the  tree  of  shame 
has  become  the  sign  of  rescue  for  the  race,  the 
Cross  of  suffering  has  become  the  hope  of 
triumph  for  the  world. 

In  the  biology  of  the  Cross  we  come  nat- 
urally to  the  life  of  the  one  who  made  the  Cross 
a  way  of  life  to  the  world.  If  there  is  to  be  a 
new  type  of  men  in  the  world,  a  type  called  Chris- 
tian, then  there  must  first  be  an  antecedent  type 
from  which  this  new  race  must  generate.  From 
antecedent  life  all  life  must  come.  The  pres- 
ervation of  type  is  a  law  of  God.  Like  begets 
like  in  the  spiritual  world  as  well  as  in  the  ma- 
terial world.  Jesus  is  the  source  of  this  new 
life.     He  is  the  antitypical  Christian. 

As  a  matter  of  history  it  is  plain  that  the 
force  which  started  Christianity  was  the  person 

31 


32  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

Jesus.  He  was  and  is  the  core  of  His  own  Gos- 
pel. From  His  wonderful  personality  emanate 
the  saving  powers  which  vitalize  the  Christian 
system.  These  vital  powers  are  the  life-forces 
resident  in  His  personality.  In  stating  this  fact 
we  make  no  assumptions  and  propound  no  the- 
ories. It  is  not  necessary  to  take  anything  for 
granted  or  to  adopt  any  particular  theological 
or  philosophical  system  in  order  to  see  clearly 
and  beyond  the  possibility  of  mistake  that  all 
the  forces  and  influences  of  Christianity  in  the 
world  have  emanated  directly  from  Jesus  Christ. 
He  is  the  soul  and  life  of  the  Christian  religion. 
But  Christ  is  more  than  the  source  of  moral  in- 
fluences ;  He  is  the  source  of  life,  the  spiritual 
head  of  a  redeemed  family.  The  most  charac- 
teristic designation  which  Paul  applies  to  Jesus 
is  "The  second  Adam."  "This  title,"  says 
Stevens,  "  suggests  the  idea  that  He  is  the  head 
and  founder  of  a  new  humanity ;  that  in  Him 
a  new  human  history  takes  its  rise.  The  rele- 
vant passages  are  1  Cor.  xv.,  and  Romans  v.  In 
the  former  chapter  the  apostle  is  contrasting 
death  and  life.  Adam  is  the  cause  of  the  one  ; 
Christ  of  the  other.  '  Since  by  man  (Adam) 
came  death,  by  man  (Christ)  came  life.'  Later 
(1  Cor.  xv.  45-49)  he  contrasts  their  natures. 
The  first  Adam  was  made  a  living  soul — a 
creature  sharing  the  perishable  life  of  nature ; 
the  last  Adam  became  (in  His  resurrection)  a 
life-giving  spirit.     He  is  the  '  second  man  from 


Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Humanity  33 

heaven ' ;  He  is  '  the  heavenly  one.'  In 
Romans  v.  12  Christ  is  the  counterpart  of 
Adam.  Through  Him  comes  to  man  the  abun- 
dance of  grace  and  of  the  gift  of  righteousness 
which  outdoes  the  power  of  sin  introduced  by 
Adam.  'Through  His  obedience  many  are 
made  righteous  (verse  19),  and  grace  reigns 
through  righteousness  unto  eternal  life  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.'  " 

This  is  the  end  contemplated  in  the  Gospel. 
The  kingdom  of  God  is  a  kingdom  of  a  new 
order  in  the  universe.  Christ  is  the  type  of 
citizen.  This  new  kingdom  is  set  over  against 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  in  which  Adam  is 
the  type  of  citizen.  In  Adam  resided  the  life- 
type  for  the  redeemed  family.  Adam  was  the 
life-head  of  the  sons  of  men ;  Christ  is  the  life- 
head  of  the  children  of  God. 

If  Christ  then  be  the  spiritual  life-head  of 
the  redeemed  family,  the  founder  of  a  new  hu- 
manity, to  stop  short  of  Him  in  our  inquiry 
would  be  to  fail  to  trace  the  life-powers  in  the 
biology  of  the  Cross  to  their  source.  Who  then 
is  this  person  that  stands  at  the  head  of  the 
Christian-life  kingdom  ?  What  is  His  relation 
to  the  Cross  ?  And  through  Him  what  is  the 
relation  of  the  Cross  to  both  God  and  man  ? 

I 

In  the  redemptive  work  of  Christ  we  are  con- 
fronted first  of  all  with  the  divine  side  of  the 


34  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

transaction.  The  atoning  work  of  Jesus  is 
God's  effort  to  restore  the  moral  order  of  the 
universe.  God  is  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  to  Himself.  This  brings  us  face  to  face 
with  the  unique  claim  of  Jesus.  He  declares 
that  He  is  the  Son  of  God ;  He  also  asserts  that 
He  is  the  Son  of  Man.  On  the  one  hand  He  is 
distinct  from  Him  whom  He  calls  Father,  and 
yet  so  related  to  Him  that  He  fully  possesses 
His  nature ;  on  the  other  hand,  He  is  distinct 
from  His  fellows  among  men,  and  yet  one  with 
them  in  life  and  experience. 

We  pass  by  the  theological  theories  concern- 
ing the  nature  of  His  personality.  We  are  con- 
cerned with  the  fact  that  the  life  of  God  and  man 
meet  in  Christ  and  form  a  new  type — the  God- 
man  life — and  shall  endeavour  to  set  that  fact 
forth.  Jesus  did  really  assume  the  true  and 
perfect  nature  of  humanity  into  a  personal  and 
complete  union  with  the  divine  nature  so  as  to 
become  true  man  while  He  remained  true  God 
in  one  person  forever.  This  doctrine  may  be 
stated  as  follows : 

1.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  the 

second  person  in  the  Trinity,  of  one  sub- 
stance and  equal  with  the  Father. 

2.  This  eternal  Son  of  God  became  man,  and  yet 

was  at  the  same  time  truly  God. 

3.  In  becoming  man  He  assumed  a  complete  hu- 

man nature,  a  nature  consisting  of  a  real 
body  and  a  rational  soul. 


Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Humanity  35 

4.  The  human  nature  which  He  assumed  was 

our  common  nature,  the  universal  nature 
of  the  human  family. 

5.  He  inherited  this  nature  from  His  mother, 

Mary,  and  in  her  and  her  progenitors  it 
was,  before  He  assumed  it,  the  same  fallen 
nature  which  every  child  of  the  race  in- 
herits. 

6.  In  the  incarnation,  in  the  act  of  conception 

by  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  human  nature  which 
He  received  was  purged  from  all  hereditary 
taint  so  that  Christ  was  the  Holy  One,  the 
immaculate  Son  of  God. 

7.  In  the  Atonement  it  was  not  the  divine  na- 

ture as  such,  nor  was  it  the  human  nature 
as  such — it  was  neither  God  alone,  nor  man 
alone,  that  suffered  and  died,  but  it  was 
the  Christ,  the  God-Man,  in  His  complete 
and  entire  personality. 


In  this  union  divinity  is  not  dormant  nor  hu- 
manity deficient.  There  are  those  who  hold 
that  the  immaterial  part  of  Christ's  humanity 
is  only  metamorphosed  Deity.  They  claim 
that  Christ  had  a  sensitive  but  not  a  rational 
soul,  and  that  the  Logos  performed  the  func- 
tions of  reason.  Some  critics  have  intensified 
this  position  by  extending  their  denial  to  all 
Christ's  immaterial  being,  claiming  that  His 
body  alone  was  derived  from  the  virgin.  This 
theory  gives  neither  real  divinity  nor  real  hu- 
manity, and  consequently  no  real  union  between 
the  two. 

There  is  not,  either,  a  double  personality. 


36  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

The  theory  of  two  personalities,  two  conscious- 
nesses and  wills,  was  first  elaborated  by  John 
of  Damascus.  It  distinguishes  between  Christ's 
humanity  and  His  divinity  in  such  a  way  as  to 
divide  Him  into  two  halves;  either  half  ap- 
pears virtually  complete  without  the  other,  and 
both  of  which  are  united,  not  in  a  single  and 
sincere  personality,  but  in  an  outward  mani- 
festation and  concealed  life,  covering  in  some 
mysterious  way  a  double  centre  of  existence. 
It  is  true  that  Christ  possesses  two  natures,  but 
as  Strong  observes,  "  this  possession  of  two 
natures  does  not  involve  a  double  personality 
in  the  God-Man  for  the  reason  that  the  Logos 
takes  into  union  with  Himself,  not  an  indi- 
vidual man  with  an  already  developed  person- 
ality, but  human  nature  which  has  had  no  sep- 
arate existence  apart  from  the  divine  nature." 

There  is  a  single  personality.  There  are  two 
natures,  but  one  person  with  one  consciousness 
and  one  will.  To  say  that  Christ  in  His  ca- 
pacity as  man  was  ignorant,  and  yet  at  the 
same  time  in  His  capacity  as  God  was  omnis- 
cient, is  to  accuse  Christ  of  unveracity.  "When- 
ever Christ  spoke  it  was  not  one  of  the  natures 
that  spoke  but  the  person  in  whom  both  natures 
were  united.  There  is  no  intimation  in  all 
Scripture  that  the  God-Man  is  not  a  single  will 
and  consciousness.  There  is  no  hint  or  indica- 
tion that  Christ  is  leading  a  double  life,  reign- 
ing consciously  as  God  while  He  is  suffering 


Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Humanity  37 

apparently  as  man.  His  personality  is  simple 
and  indivisible.  And  while  the  manner  in 
which  this  union  is  affected  may  be  beyond 
our  comprehension,  yet  the  difficulty  of  con- 
ceiving the  manner  of  the  divine  unfolding  in 
human  nature  does  not  destroy  for  us  the  re- 
ality of  the  divine-human  life.  He  who  said, 
"  I  thirst,"  said  also,  "  Before  Abraham  was,  I 
am." 

The  reality  of  the  divine-human  union  in  one 
personality  is  fundamental.  If  the  one  who 
died  on  Calvary  were  a  mere  theophany,  then 
His  death  was  little  more  than  a  divine  spec- 
tacle. In  this  transaction  the  body  of  Jesus 
was  broken,  but  God  was  not  touched.  But  if 
the  Father  truly  spared  not  His  own  Son,  but 
delivered  Him  up  for  us  all,  then  the  Father 
also  made  an  invisible  sacrifice  and  an  infinite 
surrender  of  love  for  our  sakes.  Then  the  Son 
also  suffered,  making  a  visible  sacrifice,  and 
pouring  out  His  soul  unto  death  to  redeem  us 
from  the  fear  of  death  and  the  power  of  sin. 
This  is  what  did  take  place.  When  the  light  4 
ning  stroke  of  indignation  fell  upon  the  Cross, 
it  smote  the  heart  of  the  Son  of  God.  When 
He  bore  our  sins  in  His  own  body  on  the  tree 
it  was  the  person  of  the  only  begotten  Son 
that  suffered.  In  this  crucifixion  act  there  was 
expressed  both  the  justice  of  God  and  the  love 
of  God.  As  God's  holiness  gathered  all  the 
thunderbolts  of  the  Divine  Anger  into  one  ter- 


38  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

rifle  fulmination  there  was  expressed  the  justice 
of  God ;  but  at  the  same  time  the  love  of  God 
was  expressed  in  His  only  begotten  Son  who 
hung  upon  the  tree  and  gathered  into  His  own 
bosom  all  the  darts  of  the  Divine  Justice.  The 
age-long  sufferings  of  God  for  human  sin  was 
condensed  and  expressed  in  the  agony  of  His 
only  Son.  God  provides  the  sacrifice  for  sin ; 
He  gathers  into  Himself  all  the  penalties  due 
humanity.  This  is  the  relation  of  the  Cross  to 
God.  Through  the  incarnation  divinity  is  con- 
nected with  the  Cross  and  vitalizes  that  trans- 
action with  the  life  of  heaven. 

II 

But  Christ  is  human  as  well  as  divine.  If 
there  is  any  fact  which  stands  out  distinct  and 
luminous  in  the  experience  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians it  is  that  they  saw  in  Jesus  not  merely  a 
mysterious  manifestation  of  divinity  in  a  form 
calculated  to  beget  new  doubts,  but  they  saw 
in  Him  something  utterly  different.  They  saw 
the  mystery  reduced  to  terms  of  simplicity ;  the 
revelation  levelled  to  the  direct  apprehension 
of  man,  the  unveiling  of  divinity  under  condi- 
tions which  were  so  similar  to  the  things  they 
were  acquainted  with  in  human  life,  that  they 
dissolved  doubts  and  difficulties.  They  saw  in 
Christ  a  brother,  true,  a  brother  linked  onto 
the  life  of  Jehovah,  but  still  a  brother  of  the 
race,  making  supreme  effort  to  save  the  race. 


Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Humanity  39 

The  work  of  Christ,  therefore,  in  His  effort 
of  redemption  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  hu- 
manity. The  sufferings  of  Jesus  are  the  suf- 
ferings not  only  of  the  Son  of  God,  but  also  of 
a  member  of  the  family  of  man.  He  is  the  Son 
of  Man  as  well  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  as  such 
is  making  answer  to  God  on  the  question  of  the 
divine  demand  upon  humanity.  He  meets  the 
issue  squarely  and  solves  for  all  time  the  prob- 
lem of  evil  for  the  race. 

This  is  the  meaning  of  His  human  life.  He 
was  bone  of  our  bone,  flesh  of  our  flesh,  blood 
of  our  blood ;  He  was  one  with  us  in  all  the 
experiences  of  human  pain  and  suffering  in 
order  that  He  might  come,  as  a  brother  of  the 
race,  into  such  a  relationship  with  the  race  as 
to  stand  sponsor  for  it.  To  become  legally 
responsible  for  man,  Christ  had  to  become  a 
co-partner  in  nature  with  man.  He  who  deals 
with  the  problem  of  evil  must  attack  it  from 
the  human  side  as  well  as  the  divine  side.  Sin 
is  somehow  so  related  to  humanity  that  it  has 
become  identified  with  these  bodies  of  ours,  and 
identified  in  such  a  way  as  to  find  its  expres- 
sion through  them.  Hence,  Christ  comes  into 
our  nature,  takes  upon  Himself  the  form  of 
sinful  flesh  that  He  may  condemn  sin  in  the 
flesh. 

For  centuries  the  devil  had  reigned  supreme 
through  the  flesh.  His  will  of  evil  had  been 
the  dominant  power  in  the  world.     Christ,  the 


40  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

new  man,  steps  out  upon  the  arena  of  human 
action  and  questions  the  authority  of  the  devil, 
He  comes  clothed  in  the  nature  which  the  devil 
has  always  found  it  so  easy  to  overcome,  and 
challenges  the  power  of  Satan.  He  assumes 
that  the  nature  of  humanity,  as  God  originally 
made  it,  was  sufficient  to  withstand  the  power 
of  the  devil  when  that  nature  was  put  in  right 
relation  to  God.  He  at  no  time  retreats  behind 
the  shelter  of  His  divine  nature,  but  as  the  Son 
of  Man  puts  Himself  in  the  right  relation  to 
God  and  then  challenges  the  whole  host  of 
demons.  Jesus  comes  into  the  human-life  king- 
dom, the  kingdom  which  the  devil  has  usurped, 
and  conquers  Satan  and  drives  him  out. 

It  is  the  facts  of  life,  its  secret  potencies,  its 
mysterious  limitations,  its  magnificent  unfold- 
in  gs  that  we  are  now  face  to  face  with.  Christ 
comes  to  open  a  new  way  into  the  kingdom  of 
life.  This  He  accomplishes  not  simply  by  a 
legal  transaction,  but  by  a  vital  relation.  He 
did  not  stand  aloof  from  the  race  and  make 
a  legal  adjustment  that  would  satisfy  divine 
justice,  but  He  became  one  of  the  race  and  met 
actually  every  divine  demand  made  upon  the 
race.  He  met  also  every  legal  requirement 
and  satisfied  fully  all  the  claims  of  offended 
and  outraged  justice.  He  became  a  part  of 
the  universal  humanity,  through  which  the 
forces  of  evil  had  operated  in  the  past,  and 
by  a  life  of  supreme  obedience  to  God  and  a 


Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Humanity  41 

death  which  was  a  complete  satisfaction  for 
sin,  He  banished  evil  from  the  new-life  king- 
dom. This  kingdom  He  proposes  to  make  uni- 
versal.    He  calls  it  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Ill 

As  the  result  of  Christ's  relation  to  God,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  to  man,  on  the  other  hand, 
thus  bringing  together  God  and  man  in  one 
person,  we  have  the  two  parties  concerned  in 
human  redemption  meeting  and  sharing  in  the 
sublime  sacrifice  of  the  Cross.  This  gives  us  a 
new  conception  of  redemption.  Salvation  is 
not  something  thrust  upon  man  in  which  he 
has  no  vital  interest  apart  from  the  benefits 
received.  It  is  not  simply  a  crumb  of  benevo- 
lence falling  from  the  tables  of  infinite  plenty. 
Nor  is  it  simply  a  commercial  transaction  in 
which  Jehovah  God  bargains  through  His  Son 
to  give  the  devil  so  much  suffering  for  the  souls 
of  men  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
bargains  with  men  to  give  them  eternal  life  if 
they  will  give  to  His  Son  so  much  service. 
Nor  is  it  the  stoop  of  infinite  condescension  in 
which  the  Divine  One,  touched  with  pity  by 
man's  poor  sin-stricken  state,  gathers  His  right- 
eous robes  around  Himself  and  stoops  to  save  in 
the  most  condescending  way  the  helpless  wrecks 
of  mankind,  preserving  in  all  the  transaction 
such  an  attitude  as  would  make  the  saved  sin- 
ner feel   the  stigma  of  his  former  state  and 


42  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

cause  him  to  go  grovelling  as  an  unworthy 
reprobate  through  the  rest  of  his  life.  These 
ideas,  which  have  found  more  or  less  currency 
among  men,  are  caricatures  on  the  work  of  Jesus. 
"We  must  also  steer  clear  of  the  idea  that  it 
is  by  a  simple  deed  of  amnesty  that  man  is  in- 
vited to  return  and  be  at  peace  with  God  ;  it  is 
by  a  deed  of  expiation.  It  is  not  by  nullifying 
the  powers  of  the  law  that  man  is  offered  a 
free  and  full  discharge  from  penalty,  but  it  is 
by  executing  the  law  upon  another.  God  does 
not  lift  man's  iniquities  from  him  and  scatter 
them  to  the  four  winds  of  forgetfulness,  but 
Jesus  Christ  lifted  them  off  the  shoulders  of 
the  race  aud  placed  them  on  His  own  shoulders. 
The  guilt  of  the  sinner  is  not  done  away  with 
by  a  mere  act  of  forgetfulness,  but  it  is  atoned 
for  and  washed  out  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb. 
The  legal  side  of  this  transaction  is,  however 
only  one  side  of  it ;  the  life  side  is  the  main 
feature.  Christ  met  the  conditions  of  the  law, 
but  it  was  in  order  that  a  new-life  kingdom 
might  be  established.  He  united  the  life  of  God 
and  man  into  one  conscious  being  and  thereby 
established  a  new  spiritual  headship  for  the 
race  in  order  that  there  might  be  a  new  hu- 
manity. He  obeyed  all  the  laws  necessary  to 
this  union.  Justice  and  righteousness  had  to 
be  satisfied.  Every  divine  condition  had  to  be 
met  so  that  the  resulting  union  of  the  two 
natures  would  be  harmonious  and  the  resulting 


Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Humanity  43 

life  free.  This  was  the  legal  side  of  the  ques- 
tion. These  conditions  were  all  met.  The  God- 
Man,  free  and  yet  a  member  of  the  race,  as- 
sumed humanity's  obligations  and  met  the  full 
penalty  for  all  human  failures. 

Here  lies,  plain  and  distinct,  the  fundamental 
fact  of  the  Gospel.  That  fact  is  that  Christ,  as 
the  God-Man,  assumes  the  guilt  and  conse- 
quences of  a  world's  sin.  We  do  not  profess 
to  be  able  to  give  an  explanation  of  how  this 
is  possible.  Theories  manifold  have  been  in- 
vented in  order  to  make  it  plain.  ISTo  one  of 
them  has  gone  to  the  bottom  of  the  divine  full- 
ness. But  we  do  know  that  Christ,  in  His 
perfect  manhood  wedded  to  true  divinity,  is 
capable  of  entering  into  such  closeness  of  rela- 
tion with  humanity,  and  with  every  man,  as 
that  on  Him  can  be  laid  the  iniquity  of  us  all. 

This  is  the  method  of  Jehovah  God.  The 
spirit  of  redemption  has  always  been  at  work. 
No  sooner  has  one  part  of  nature  done  or  re- 
ceived an  injury  than  all  the  rest  of  nature 
comes  like  a  kind  doctor  to  heal  the  wound. 
If  the  lightning  strikes  a  tree,  nature  seems  to 
become  more  tender  to  it,  and,  hardly  has  the 
flash  passed,  until  the  healing,  redeeming, 
motherly  spirit  has  taken  the  tree  in  charge 
to  bind  up  its  wounds.  We  call  this  the  self- 
restoring  power  of  nature,  but  whatever  we 
call  it,  it  is  after  all  the  redemptive  force  ;  it  is 
God  at  work  keeping  His  creation  together  and 


44  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

making  it  whole.  In  the  universe  He  is  Shep- 
herd, Mother,  Physician,  Friend,  protecting 
even  the  sparrows  and  coming  to  heal  and  to 
cure  and  to  reconstruct  all  things  from  the  ten- 
derest  blade  of  grass  to  the  most  ponderous 
planet.  Shall  the  God  of  grace  operate  in 
continuous  healing  power  in  nature  and  allow 
the  sons  of  men  to  decay  in  sin  ?  Shall  His 
power  of  redemption  pervade  the  entire  uni- 
verse and  not  sweep  the  fields  of  human  life  ? 
Such  an  attitude  would  be  a  violation  of  His 
nature.  The  Christ  of  God  takes  away  the  sin 
of  the  world.  He  redeems  the  world.  He 
does  not  try  to  save  it ;  He  does  not  compro- 
mise with  it ;  He  does  not  say,  "  I  will  do  the 
best  I  can  under  these  disastrous  circumstances' ' ; 
but  He  meets  the  tragic  need  of  a  sin-sick  earth 
and  opens  the  door  of  hope  and  life  to  all. 
Christ  has  procured  the  right  of  release  for 
every  soul.  The  conditions  of  pardon  have 
been  met  for  every  man.  What  the  first  Adam 
did  has  been  undone  by  the  second  Adam. 

IV 

Christ,  by  coming  into  the  life-kingdom  of 
man,  put  Himself  in  a  position  where  He  could 
assume  man's  obligations,  but  that  is  not  all  He 
did.  To  purchase  freedom  from  man  is  one 
thing,  to  give  freedom  to  man  is  another  thing. 
Man's  trouble  did  not  consist  simply  in  the  fact 
that  he  was  a  sinner,  but  he  was  spiritually 


Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Humanity   45 

dead  as  well.  To  establish  the  conditions  of 
pardon  for  the  race  is  of  little  avail  unless  the 
souls  of  men  are  quickened.  Salvation  does  not 
consist  in  a  simple  act  of  forgiveness,  though 
forgiveness  is  included.  A  saved  soul  is  a  re- 
generated soul.  The  key  word  in  the  religion 
of  Jesus  is  life.  That  which  He  gives  to  us  is 
life.  If  the  work  of  Christ  means  anything  to 
the  race  it  means  a  new  life  relation  to  God. 
Jesus  brings  us  into  the  family  of  the  Father. 
He  brings  the  life  of  divinity  out  of  the  in- 
scrutable and  unknowable  mysteries  of  the 
divine  regions  of  existence  and  so  focalizes 
that  life  in  a  human  personality  that  we  can 
comprehend  and  understand  somewhat  the 
Father's  love.  He  brings  human  nature,  the 
life  of  man,  out  of  the  depths  to  which  it  had 
fallen  and  unites  it  onto  the  life  of  divinity  in 
such  a  way  as  to  constitute  a  new- life  kingdom. 
This  kingdom  is  a  new  thing  in  the  universe, 
and  the  citizens  of  this  new  kingdom  are  be- 
ings of  a  new  order.  It  is  a  kingdom  in  which 
there  is  united  the  highest  order  of  material  be- 
ing,— the  man-life,  with  the  highest  order  of 
spiritual  being, — the  God-life,  into  a  new  order 
of  being, — the  God-Man  life.  This  new  per- 
son is  of  the  family  of  heaven.  He  is  not 
simply  a  creature,  but  a  son.  He  has  come 
into  the  possession  of  the  highest  principle  of 
life  by  being  brought  into  contact  with  the 
Father  through  the  new  spiritual  head,  Christ 


46  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

Jesus.  This  has  been  accomplished  by  Christ 
in  a  supernatural  way,  the  incarnation.  When 
the  Logos  became  flesh,  divinity  was  brought 
into  the  life-sphere  of  man.  But  in  the  same 
act  humanity  was  brought  into  the  life-sphere 
of  God.  While  God  humbled  Himself  in  stoop- 
ing to  this  relation,  humanity  was  glorified  by 
it  and  given  a  divine-life  environment.  Hu- 
man life  was  then  invested  with  a  new  mean- 
ing. It  was  then  given  a  new  life-centre. 
There  was  established,  through  the  redemptive 
work  of  Christ,  a  Christ-life  kingdom.  This 
Christ-life  kingdom  is  the  God-Man  kingdom. 
The  life-source  in  this  kingdom  is  Christ.  Be- 
cause we  have  personal  relation  with  Christ  we 
come  into  the  Christ-life,  become  members  of 
the  family  of  God,  and  pass  out  of  the  kingdom 
of  sin  and  death.  "  There  is  therefore  now  no 
condemnation  to  those  who  are  in  Christ  Jesus, 
for  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  hath 
made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 
For  what  the  law  could  not  do  in  that  it  was 
weak  through  the  flesh,  God,  sending  His  own 
Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  and  for  sin 
condemned  sin  in  the  flesh  that  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  law  might  be  made  manifest  in  us 
who   walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the 

Spirit." 

V 

The  effect  of  this  whole  system  is  salutary 
and  tremendous.     As  Dr.  Van  Dyke  says  :  "  If 


Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Humanity  47 

the  Son  of  God,  who  is  the  image  of  the 
Father,  by  laying  aside  the  outward  preroga- 
tives of  His  divine  mode  of  existence,  actually 
becomes  human,  then,  and  only  then,  the  di- 
vine image  in  which  man  was  created  is  no 
mere  figure  of  speech,  but' a  substantial  like- 
ness of  spiritual  being.  There  is  a  true  fellow- 
ship between  our  souls  and  our  Father  in 
heaven.  Virtue  is  not  a  vain  dream,  but  a  defi- 
nite striving  towards  His  perfection.  Revela- 
tion is  not  a  deception,  but  a  message  from  Him 
who  knows  all  to  those  who  know  only  in  part. 
Prayer  is  not  an  empty  form,  but  a  real  com- 
munion." And  he  might  have  added,  Chris- 
tianity is  not  simply  belief  in  a  creed  or  obedi- 
ence to  a  set  of  rules,  but  a  life  in  which  the 
soul  is  to  live  in  fellowship  with  the  Father. 

Such  a  conception  at  once  rectifies,  purifies, 
and  elevates  our  view  of  God.  It  is  through 
the  human  life  of  the  Son  that  we  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  Father.  "  No  man  hath  seen 
God  at  any  time,  the  only  begotten  Son  who  is 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  declared 
Him."  It  is  through  Christ  and  His  work 
that  we  come  to  know  the  most  divine  character- 
istic of  God.  This  is  not  vast  size,  dazzling 
physical  glory  that  overawes  the  senses,  but 
infinite  goodness,  holiness  that  cannot  be 
tempted,  and  love  that  accommodates  itself  to 
the  needs  of  all  His  creatures.  The  resistless 
might  of    natural  forces  shows   us  only  the 


48  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

omnipotence  of  God.  The  power  that  upholds 
the  planets  speaks  but  of  physical  force  and  tells 
us  nothing  of  a  holy,  loving  being.  Nothing 
but  an  impersonal  power  meets  us  in  all  these 
mighty  manifestations  of  nature,  and  though 
the  whole  universe  fell  into  ruins  around  us,  or 
though  we  saw  a  new  world  spring  into  being, 
still  we  might  suppose  that  the  power  by  which 
all  this  was  effected  was  impersonal,  and  could 
hold  no  fellowship  with  us.  Only,  then,  through 
that  which  is  personal,  only  through  that  which 
is  like  ourselves,  only  through  that  which  is  moral, 
can  God  reveal  His  true  character  to  us.  This 
we  find  in  His  Son,  our  brother,  Christ  Jesus. 

If  we  doubt  that  there  is  a  divine  goodness 
upholding  all  things  let  us  look  to  Christ.  It 
is  in  Him  that  we  see  goodness  tested  and  tried 
under  circumstances  and  in  environments  which 
we  can  examine  and  understand.  This  is  good- 
ness carried  to  the  highest  pitch,  goodness 
triumphant,  the  goodness  of  One  who  comes 
among  us  from  a  higher  sphere  it  is  true,  but 
of  One  who  lived  one  common  life  with  us.  It 
is  the  goodness  of  God  translating  itself  into 
the  actuality  of  human  history.  This  revela- 
tion of  God  gives  us  a  new  conception  of  God. 
For  if  the  Son  of  God  can  surrender  omnipres- 
ence, omnipotence,  and  omniscience  without 
destroying  His  personal  identity,  then  the 
central  essence  of  Deity  is  neither  infinite  wis- 
dom nor  infinite  power,  but  infinite  goodness. 


Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Humanity  49 

And  so  from  the  very  lowest  valley  of  humilia- 
tion we  catch  sight  of  the  very  loftiest  sum- 
mit of  theology,  the  serene  and  shining  truth 
that  God  is  Love. 

In  Christ,  through  His  human-divine  relation, 
we  have  revealed  also  the  true  and  ultimate 
glory  of  humanity.  Sin  had  so  spoiled  human 
nature  that  we  could  never  know  its  original 
glory  and  dignity  if  the  Logos  had  not  come 
into  it  and  lifted  it  up.  Sin  had  spoiled  the 
work  of  creation.  Man  had  fallen  far  short  of 
the  glory  of  God.  It  seemed  as  if  failure  was 
to  be  written  on  the  face  of  earthly  affairs. 
But  the  Logos  grasped  the  divine  concept,  came 
down  to  earth  and  gathered  together  the 
broken  fragments  of  fallen  humanity  and 
worked  out  into  a  spotless  person  God's  idea  of 
manhood.  Humanity,  in  its  union  with  the 
divine  nature  in  Him,  and,  through  His  grace 
which  makes  union  with  the  divine  nature  a 
fact  in  the  life  of  every  believer,  is  immeasur- 
ably exalted  in  dignity  and  worth,  but  at  the 
same  time  becomes  more  intensely  human.  The 
Christian,  which  is  the  product  of  the  redemp- 
tive work  of  Christ  and  the  ultimate  outcome  of 
God's  saving  thought  towards  the  race,  is  the 
true,  the  ideal,  the  ultimate  manhood.  This 
work  of  God's  grace  is  an  over-reach  of  love 
towards  mankind,  and  the  complete  overthrow 
of  all  the  wicked  devices  of  the  devil. 

Man  was  created  a   little  lower  than   the 


50  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

angels,  but  in  the  final  culmination  of  the  re- 
demptive purpose  of  God  in  Christ,  the  re- 
deemed will  be  infinitely  higher  than  the  angels. 
This  final  outcome  is  not  because  of  sin,  but  in 
spite  of  it.  In  the  beginning  God  made  man  a 
creature ;  in  redemption  through  Christ's  Cross 
God  makes  man  a  son.  Thus  through  the 
sacrifice  of  the  divine-human  Christ  that  which 
sin  would  have  ruined  is  lifted  up  to  the  proud 
position  of  Sonship  in  the  life-kingdom  of  the 
Father.  This  is  the  supreme  triumph  of  hu- 
manity accomplished  for  us  by  our  human-di- 
vine brother,  Christ.  It  is  the  supreme  thwart- 
ing of  the  purposes  of  Satan.  It  is  the  supreme 
salvation  of  humanity. 

This  glorious  result  is  obtained  through  the 
sacrificial  work  of  Christ.  It  is  through  the 
redemptive  work  of  the  divine-human  Son  that 
we  are  adopted  into  the  family  of  the  Father, 
and  not  only  adopted  into  the  family,  for  the 
work  of  Christ  goes  deeper  into  things  than  the 
establishment  of  mere  legal  relations,  but  we  are 
made  one  with  the  life  of  the  Father.  If  the 
work  of  Christ  means  anything  to  the  race  it 
means  a  life-relationship  with  God.  Christ 
brings  us  into  the  fellowship  of  the  life  of  the 
Father  as  well  as  the  knowledge  of  God. 

YI 

In  the  economy  of  divine  doings,  Christ's 
coming  and  His  Cross  were  necessary.     He  laid 


Christ  the  Head  of  a  New  Humanity   51 

by  His  Cross  both  the  basis  of  condemnation 
and  the  basis  of  justification.  But  the  Cross 
had  to  be  set  up ;  the  sorrow  and  suffering  had 
to  be  endured  though  no  answering  heart  called 
Him  Lord  and  Saviour.  Sin  must  be  dealt  with, 
A  divine  answer  must  be  given  to  a  Satanic 
challenge  and  a  human  apostasy,  and  that 
answer  could  be  given  only  through  the  Cross. 
In  the  divine  plan  it  was  impossible  to  escape 
the  Cross  whether  any  one  responds  to  the  call 
of  love  as  it  sobs  out  its  message  on  the  tree  of 
suffering  or  not.  The  Saviour-Man  must  go  by 
the  way  of  the  Cross  to  fulfill  the  divine  de- 
mand. It  is  the  eternal  must  that  drives  Him 
to  the  tree  of  sacrifice.  And  the  saved-man 
must  go  by  the  way  of  the  Cross  also  if  he  would 
fulfill  the  divine  conditions  in  the  Christ-life 
kingdom.  The  Cross  is  the  gateway  into  glory 
for  all  the  race,  and  Christ  made  it  more  than  a 
deliverance  from  sin ;  He  made  it  the  entrance- 
way  into  the  life  of  God. 


Ill 

THE  EMBKYOLOGY  OF  THE  NEW  LIFE 

IN  that  splendid  work  of  genius,  " Natural 
Law  in  the  Spiritual  "World,"  Henry 
Drummond,  one  of  the  most  scientific  of 
all  the  religious  writers,  says :  "  For  two  hun- 
dred years  the  scientific  world  has  been  rent 
with  discussions  upon  the  origin  of  life.  Two 
great  schools  have  defended  exactly  opposite 
views — one  that  matter  can  spontaneously 
generate  life,  the  other  that  life  can  only  come 
from  preexisting  life."  He  then  shows  by  an 
array  of  evidence  overwhelming  that  a  decided 
and  authoritative  conclusion  has  at  last  been 
reached.  "  So  far  as  science  can  settle  anything, 
this  question  is  settled.  Spontaneous  genera- 
tion has  had  to  be  given  up.  And  it  is  now 
recognized  on  every  hand  that  life  can  only 
come  from  the  touch  of  life." 

In  the  religious  world  a  similar  discussion 
has  been  waged  for  more  than  two  hundred 
years.  Exactly  opposite  views  have  been  taken 
by  two  great  schools  of  thought.  One  has  con- 
tended that  spiritual  life  in  man  can  come  only 
from  preexisting  life ;  the  other  that  it  can 
spontaneously  generate  itself.  They  have  dif- 
fered also  as  to  the  nature  of  spiritual  life  in 

52 


The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life     53 

man.  To  one  school  spiritual  life  is  a  new 
entity ;  to  the  other,  it  is  only  the  old  nature 
regulated.  One  school  holds  that  Christianity 
does  not  consist  simply  in  conformity  to  a 
certain  set  of  rules,  but  that  it  is  a  divine  life 
breathed  into  humanity  from  the  nostrils  of 
God;  the  other  holds  that  Christianity  is  a 
system  of  faith  or  a  body  of  doctrine  in  which 
is  set  forth  the  regulations  by  which  one's  life 
is  to  be  governed,  and  that  by  meeting  certain 
specific  external  demands,  the  individual  is,  by 
a  legal  process,  absolved  from  all  guilt  and 
made  free  from  condemnation. 

The  difference  between  these  two  positions  is 
radical.  According  to  one  theory  man  is  spiri- 
tually, dead,  that  is,  he  is  wholly  destitute  of 
spiritual  life  ;  according  to  the  other  theory  man 
is  only  in  a  condition  bordering  on  death ;  there 
is  yet  in  him  the  germ  of  spiritual  life  which  only 
needs  stimulation  that  it  may  become  active  and 
cultivation  that  it  may  become  dominant.  This 
is  simply  the  spontaneous  generation  theory 
and  means  that  a  man  may  become  gradually 
better  and  better  until  in  course  of  the  proc- 
ess he  reaches  that  quality  of  religious  nature 
known  as  spiritual  life.  This  life  is  not  some- 
thing added  ab  extra  to  the  natural  man;  it  is 
the  normal  and  appropriate  development  of  the 
natural  man.  The  whole  doctrine  of  regenera- 
tion is  opposed  to  this  theory.  The  scheme  of 
redemption  presupposes  that  man  is  dead,  dead 


54  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

in  trespasses  and  sin.  It  was  because  of  this 
fact  that  Christ  came  into  the  world.  Life  was 
the  gift  He  brought  to  man ;  as  He  said,  in  His 
magnificent  way,  "  I  am  come  that  they  might 
have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more 
abundantly." 

I 

Herbert  Spencer  has  given  us  what  he  calls 
a  definition  of  life.  "  All  vital  actions,"  says 
he,  "considered  not  separately  but  in  their 
ensemble, '  have  for  their  final  purpose  the 
balancing  of  certain  outer  processes  by  certain 
inner  processes.  Whence  it  becomes  manifest 
that  life  is  the  definite  combination  of 
heterogeneous  changes,  both  simultaneous  and 
successive  in  correspondence  with  external  co- 
existences and  sequences.  Divesting  this  con- 
ception of  all  superfluities  and  reducing  it  to  its 
most  abstract  shape,  we  see  that  life  is  definable 
as  the  continuous  adjustment  of  internal  rela- 
tions to  external  relations." 

This  definition  does  not  deal  with  the  pro- 
duction of  life,  but  only  with  its  maintenance 
in  any  given  kingdom  of  being.  It  points  out 
the  relation  between  environment  and  life,  but 
there  must  first  be  life  before  there  can  be  cor- 
respondence of  any  kind.  Behind  all  adjust- 
ments of  internal  relations  to  external  relations 
there  is  a  vital  entity  whose  business  it  is  to 
make  these  adjustments.     We  call  that  energy 


The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life     55 

life.  This  term  expresses  but  does  not  define 
for  us  the  vital  principle  back  of  all  organic 
being  and  development.  This  life  principle  is 
distinct,  on  the  one  hand,  from  the  matter  upon 
which  it  operates  to  produce  organic  form ; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  distinct  from  (al- 
though it  is  the  cause  of)  all  organic  growth  and 
activity.  This  mysterious  something  we  call 
life  challenges  definition.  It  retreats  into  mys- 
tery and  all  man's  wisdom  is  incapable  of  coax- 
ing it  out  of  this  inscrutable  retreat.  Every 
attempt  which  man  has  made  to  drag  this 
fleeting  entity  to  the  light  of  understanding  has 
only  served  to  exhibit  the  futility  of  the  attempt 
and  to  prove  that,  while  men  know  a  great 
many  interesting  and  curious  facts  about  life 
and  reproduction,  yet,  when  it  comes  to  life  it- 
self, they  can  give  no  intelligent  explanation 
of  it. 

But  while  we  cannot  tell  what  life  is,  yet  we 
can  distinguish  between  the  different  forms  and 
expressions  and  types  of  life  in  the  various  life- 
kingdoms  with  which  we  are  surrounded. 
While  it  is  a  living  principle  that  animates  all 
organic  beings,  yet  it  is  not  the  same  principle. 
There  is  a  different  kind  or  type  of  life  for  every 
species.  In  the  protoplasmatic  state  it  is  true 
that  the  biologist  cannot  distinguish  between 
the  life-germ  of  the  reptile  and  the  life-germ  of 
the  bird.  "  There  is,  indeed,"  says  Beale,  "  a 
period  in  the  development  of  every  tissue  and 


56  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

every  living  thing  known  to  us  where  there  are 
actually  no  structural  peculiarities  whatever — 
where  the  whole  organism  consists  of  transpar- 
ent, structureless,  semi-fluid  living  bioplasm — 
when  it  would  not  be  possible  to  distinguish  the 
moving  matter  which  was  to  evolve  the  oak 
from  that  which  was  the  germ  of  a  vertebrate 
animal."  This  structureless,  semi-fluid  sub- 
stance called  protoplasm  is  not  only  the  struc- 
tural unit  with  which  all  living  bodies,  both 
plant  and  animal,  start  in  life,  but  it  is  the  sub- 
stance with  which  they  are  subsequently  built 
up.  "Protoplasm,"  says  Huxley,  "simple  or 
nucleated,  is  the  formal  basis  of  all  life.  It  is 
the  clay  of  the  potter.  Beast  and  fowl,  reptile 
and  iish,  mollusk,  worm  and  polyp  are  all  com- 
posed of  structural  units  of  the  same  character, 
namely,  masses  of  protoplasm  with  a  nucleus." 
But  the  very  moment  the  organism  begins  to 
develop  and  to  take  on  organic  form  there  is  a 
marked  difference.  One  piece  of  protoplasm  is 
fashioned  into  a  bird,  another  piece  of  the  same 
protoplasm  is  given  the  form  of  a  serpent,  and 
still  another  piece  of  the  same  protoplasm  is 
builded  into  man.  What  is  it  that  determines 
the  difference  ?  It  is  the  mysterious  something 
which  has  entered  into  this  protoplasm.  No 
eye  can  see  it.  No  science  can  define  it.  It  is 
the  vital  entity  we  call  life.  "  Protoplasm  being 
the  clay,"  says  Henry  Drummond,  "  this  some- 
thing is  the  potter.     And  as  there  is  only  one 


The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life     57 

elay  and  yet  all  these  curious  forms  are  devel- 
oped out  of  it,  it  follows  necessarily  that  the 
difference  lies  in  the  potters.  There  must  be  in 
short  as  many  potters  as  there  are  forms.  There 
is  the  potter  who  segments  the  worm,  and  the 
potter  who  builds  up  the  form  of  the  dog,  and 
the  potter  who  moulds  the  man."  Moreover 
each  potter  confines  himself  exclusively  to 
working  out  his  own  plan.  "  He  appears  to  have 
his  own  plan  somehow  stamped  upon  himself, 
and  his  work  is  rigidly  to  reproduce  himself." 

This  artist  who  operates  upon  matter  in  this 
subtle  way  and  carries  out  the  law  of  conformity 
type  is  life.  This  vital  entity  being  different 
in  each  operates  to  the  upbuilding  for  its  own 
type  an  external  existence.  Thus  the  bird-life 
seizes  upon  the  things  environing  it  and  builds 
out  of  these  a  bird,  the  image  of  itself.  The 
reptile-life  seizes  out  of  its  environment  the  same 
chemical  elements  and  fashions  them  into  a  rep- 
tile, the  image  of  itself.  In  both  instances  it  is 
the  nature  of  the  life  within  that  determines 
the  character  of  the  organic  expression.  The 
reptile  is  but  the  incarnation  of  the  reptile-life. 
The  visible  bird  is  but  the  organic  expression 
of  the  invisible  bird-life.  Behind  all  incarna- 
tions and  all  visible  manifestations  of  organic 
form  there  must  first  be  the  vital  principle 
called  life,  which  principle  incarnates  itself 
and  through  this  incarnation  gives  to  itself  or- 
ganic form. 


58  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

This  brings  us  to  the  place  where  the  spiritual 
analogy  appears.  These  lower  phenomena  of 
life  are  but  the  simpler  forms  in  the  operations 
of  the  Great  God  of  life.  All  life  has  its 
source  in  God.  But  these  lower  forms  do  not 
exhaust  the  divine  operations.  There  is  a 
higher  kingdom  of  being  than  that  attained  by 
man  in  the  most  lofty  reaches  of  his  highest 
correspondences.  This  higher  life,  called  the 
spiritual  life,  obeys  the  same  laws  which  gov- 
ern the  lower  forms  of  life.  As  the  protoplasm 
is  the  clav  with  which  the  lower  forms  of  life 
build  organic  structures,  so  is  the  human  soul 
the  spiritual  protoplasm  with  which  the  heav- 
enly life  builds  the  spiritual  organism.  As  the 
bird-life  builds  up  a  bird,  the  image  of  itself, 
out  of  the  material  protoplasm  with  which  it  is 
environed,  so  the  heavenly  life  implanted  in 
the  inmost  nature  of  man  builds  up  a  heavenly 
being,  the  image  of  itself,  out  of  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man.  This  is  a  wonderful  analogy, 
so  startling  that  one  hesitates  to  put  it  into 
words.  "  Yet,"  as  Drummond  says,  "  nature  is 
reverent;  and  it  is  her  voice  to  which  we 
listen." 

II 

This  throws  new  light  upon  man's  spiritual 
nature  and  puts  a  new  construction  on  his  rela- 
tions to  the  kingdom  of  the  heavenly  life. 
Man  by  nature,  and  we  are  dealing  with  him  as 


The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life     59 

Christ  found  him,  is  out  of  correspondence  with 
that  higher  environment  called  the  spiritual 
world.  But  he  is  out  of  correspondence  with 
it  because  his  life  is  not  the  heavenly  type. 
Environment  does  not  determine  the  nature  of 
the  life,  but  the  nature  of  the  life  determines 
the  environment.  The  difference  in  the  nature 
of  the  life  of  different  species  is  the  funda- 
mental reason  for  the  impregnable  barriers 
which  stand  between  different  types.  The  fish 
is  dead  to  the  universe  of  the  bird  not  simply 
because  of  a  failure  to  correspond  to  the  envi- 
ronment of  the  bird,  but  because  it  has  a  dif- 
ferent kind  of  life.  The  animals  in  the  king- 
doms beneath  man  are  dead  to  the  intellectual 
and  moral  kingdoms  in  which  man  lives  not 
simply  because  of  a  failure  to  correspond  to 
the  environment  in  these  kingdoms,  but  be- 
cause the  life  in  each  type  beneath  man  is 
different  from  the  man-life.  Hence  man  is 
dead  to  the  heavenly  life  because  the  type  of 
life  which  he  possesses  is  of  such  a  nature  that 
it  cannot  make  the  "  continuous  adjustment  of 
internal  relations  to  the  external  relations " 
of  the  heavenly  kingdom.  In  other  words  man 
has  life,  but  it  is  not  the  divine  type ;  he  lives, 
but  not  in  the  heavenly  realm.  If  one  might 
give  the  broader  meaning  to  the  words  of  Paul : 
"  The  type  of  life  which  man  has  is  not  subject 
to  the  law  of  God  neither  indeed  can  be." 
We  are  not  now  discussing  the  nature  of  sin. 


6o  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

It  is  enough  to  know  that  sin  separates  from 
God,  that  it  is  apostasy  from  God.  We  are 
not  concerned  either  with  the  origin  of  evil. 
We  face  the  fact  that  man  by  evil  has  suffered 
the  loss  of  heavenly  life.  Christ  did  not  in  all 
of  His  teachings  speak  of  the  origin  of  sin  or 
discuss  its  specific  nature,  yet  He  recognized  it 
as  having  its  seat  in  the  heart,  the  inner  life, 
the  sphere  of  motive  and  desire.  In  His  teach- 
ings He  follows  the  law  of  conformity  to  type 
as  set  forth  in  biology.  In  the  thought  of 
Christ  the  inner  life  rules  the  outer  life  (Matt, 
vii.  34).  Hate  is  the  source  of  murder  (Matt, 
v.  22).  Lust  is  the  essence  of  adultery  (Matt, 
v.  28).  Holding  to  this  conception,  which  is 
only  the  law  of  conformity  to  type  transferred 
to  the  field  of  moral  conduct,  Christ  taught 
that  character  determines  the  acts  and  words 
of  men,  and  that  if  you  change  the  outer  life 
you  must  first  change  the  inner  nature  (Matt, 
vii.  17-20;  xii.  33).  That  Christ  considered 
the  type  of  life  which  man  possessed  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind  from  that  which  he  must  have  if 
he  would  come  into  the  heavenly  life  is  evident 
from  His  discourse  with  Mcodemus.  Here  in 
the  most  unmistakable  terms  He  declares  that 
a  man — not  Nicodemus  simply,  but  any  man — 
cannot  get  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  until 
there  has  first  come  a  radical  change  in  his 
nature.  "That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is 
flesh,"  and  it  remains  flesh  and  cannot  enter 


The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life     61 

the  kingdom  (1  Cor.  xv.  50),  and  "  that  which 
is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  Spirit." 

It  is  universally  admitted,  because  a  universal 
fact  of  consciousness,  that  the  feelings  and 
affections  are  not  under  the  control  of  the  will. 
No  man  can  love  what  is  hateful  to  him,  or 
hate  what  he  delights  in,  by  any  exercise  of 
his  self-determining  power.  Hence  the  philoso- 
phers, with  Kant,  pronounce  the  command  to 
love  an  absurdity,  as  skeptics  declare  the  com- 
mand to  believe  absurd.  Man's  connection  with 
sin  has  so  affected  his  life  that  the  type  which 
he  now  has  is  "  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God 
neither  indeed  can  be."  Man  has,  through  trans- 
gression, fallen  to  that  position  in  life  where, 
by  no  self -determining  power  which  he  pos- 
sesses, can  he  force  the  inner  powers  of  the 
soul  into  submission  to  the  will  of  God.  This 
makes  the  new  birth  an  absolute  necessity. 

Ill 

In  the  embryology  of  the  new  life  we  not 
only  have  to  deal  with  the  old  nature,  but  we 
have  also  the  transforming  life  and  the  new 
being  resulting  from  the  operations  of  the 
heavenly  life  as  it  works  within  the  soul  of 
the  individual  into  whom  it  has  been  planted. 
In  nature  there  are  three  things — formative 
matter,  formed  matter,  and  the  forming  prin- 
ciple of  life.  This  analogy  follows  in  the  spiri- 
tual world.     In  the  kingdom  of  grace  the  soul 


62  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

of  man  furnished  the  spiritual  protoplasm  out  of 
which  the  new  spiritual  being  is  to  be  formed. 
But  there  must  be  a  formative  agent.  We 
have  seen  above  that  by  no  self-determining 
power  within  man  can  the  affections  be  turned 
towards  God.  The  life  man  has  is  not  the 
right  type  for  heavenly  citizenship.  The  type 
of  heaven  must  come  into  him  before  he  can 
live  spiritually. 

It  is  to  supply  this  need  that  Christ  came 
into  the  world.  Christ's  mission  to  the  earth 
was  to  give  men  life.  He  came  because  men 
were  dead ;  because  they  were  separated  from 
the  life  of  God.  Through  His  incarnation 
Christ  brought  the  life  of  heaven  into  the  life 
of  man ;  through  His  act  He  brought  God  and 
humanity  together  in  one  person,  the  God-Man, 
and  in  this  new  person  opened,  through  the 
sacrifice  of  the  Cross,  the  fountains  of  a  new 
type  of  life. 

This  life  which  Jesus  brought  into  the  world 
and  which  He  proposes  to  give  to  men  is  the 
Christ-life.  This  life  has  its  centre  and  source 
in  God.  When  one  thinks  of  life  in  the  Chris- 
tian as  one  thing  and  life  in  God  as  another 
thing,  he  has  lost  the  science  of  being  in  the 
Christ-kingdom.  Christianity  does  not  consist 
in  mere  conformity  to  a  set  of  rules ;  it  is  an 
implanted  life.  Jesus  claimed  that  He  was 
"  The  Life,"  and  that  His  supreme  function  in 
the  world  was  to  give  men  life.     "  I  am  come 


The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life     63 

that  they  might  have  life,  and  have  it  more 
abundantly."  Peter  declares  that  we  are  made 
"  partakers  of  the  divine  nature,"  and  Paul  as- 
sures us  that  "  Christ  is  formed  in  us  the  hope 
of  glory."  The  Christian  life  is  in  its  origin 
heavenly  and  cometh  down  from  above. 

This  principle  of  life  is  connected  with 
Christ.  The  germ  of  it  is  in  Christ.  He  that 
hath  the  Son  hath  life.  "When  a  man  be- 
comes a  Christian,"  says  Henry  Drummond, 
"  the  process  is  this :  The  living  Christ  en- 
ters his  soul.  Development  begins.  The 
quickening  life  seizes  upon  the  soul,  assimilates 
surrounding  elements,  and  begins  to  fashion  it. 
According  to  the  great  law  of  conformity  to 
type  this  fashioning  takes  a  specific  form.  It 
is  that  of  the  artist  who  fashions.  And  all 
through  life  this  wonderful,  mystical,  glorious, 
yet  perfectly  definite  process  goes  on  '  until 
Christ  be  formed '  in  it."  Those  who  possess 
the  Son  possess  the  spirit  of  the  Son.  That 
spirit  is,  so  to  speak,  organized  within  them  by 
the  Son,  so  that  as  Paul  says  :  "  It  is  no  longer 
I  that  live,  but  Christ  that  liveth  in  me." 

This  life  comes  not  from  generation,  but 
from  regeneration.  The  relation  between  the 
spiritual  man  and  the  life  above  is  a  filial  rela- 
tion. He  knows  the  Father,  and  that  is  life 
eternal.  This  relation  is  established  through 
the  Son.  "Neither  knoweth  any  man  the 
Father  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the 


64  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

Son  shall  reveal  Him."  It  was  through  the 
Cross  that  the  wall  of  partition  was  broken 
down  between  man  and  God  and  the  new  hu- 
man-divine relationship  established. 

IV 

It  is  very  important  that  we  should  have  a 
right  conception  of  this  wonderful  miracle  by 
which  the  spiritual  protoplasm,  the  soul  of  man, 
is  seized  upon  by  the  incoming  Christ-life  and 
built  up  into  a  new  being  which  is  the  image 
of  the  Son.  One's  understanding  of  this  mys- 
terious process  will  largely  colour  his  conception 
of  the  Christian  life.  If  he  is  led  to  believe 
that  regeneration  is  nothing  more  than  a  change 
in  his  old  nature,  and  that  this  change  is  in 
some  manner  gradual  in  its  operations,  then, 
when  he  finds,  as  he  surely  will,  that  this  na- 
ture of  his  which  is  supposed  to  be  changed 
still  longs  for  the  world  and  the  things  of  the 
world,  he  will  be  filled  with  continual  anxiety 
and  apprehension,  doubt  and  fear. 

Eegeneration  has  been  defined  to  be  "  that 
act  of  God  by  which  the  governing  disposi- 
tion of  the  soul  is  made  holy,  and  by  which, 
through  the  truth  as  a  means,  the  first  exercise 
of  this  disposition  is  secured."  This  definition 
does  not  provide  for,  yea,  it  does  not  include  or 
even  comprehend  the  supreme  thing  in  regener- 
ation. The  governing  disposition  or  power  of 
the  soul  is  indeed  holy,  but  this  new  power  is 


The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life     65 

not  the  old  disposition  changed,  but  a  new  life 
implanted.  Hence  in  defining  regeneration  we 
want  to  get  away  from  any  suggestion  that 
would  even  faintly  imply  that  this  mysterious 
process  is  simply  making  over  the  old  man. 
It  is  a  new  birth ;  the  implanting  of  a  new  life ; 
the  formation  of  a  new  being.  God  in  Christ 
through  the  incarnation  makes  possible  a  new 
type  of  life.  This  new  life  type  begins  in  re- 
generation and  is  consummated  in  glorification. 
The  Christian  is  a  new  creature. 

But  let  us  appeal  to  the  divine  record.  In 
what  terms  does  the  New  Testament  describe 
this  process  ?  The  answer  is  significantly 
striking.  It  uses  everywhere  the  language  of 
biology.  There  are  seven  words  used  to  set  forth 
the  process  of  the  new  birth,  Gennao,  Ana- 

GENNAO,  PALIGGENESIA,  AnAKAINOSIS,  APO- 

kueo,  Ktizo,  Sltzoopoieo,  and  every  one  of 
these  words  carries  the  idea  of  a  new  being,  a 
new  beginning,  a  new  birth,  a  new  creation. 
Gennao  means  to  beget ;  Anagennao  to  be- 
get again ;  Paliggenesia  a  new  birth ; 
Anakainosis  a  renewal,  from  Anakainao 
to  make  new ;  Apokueo  to  bring  forth,  to 
produce ;  Ktizo  to  create,  and  Suzoopoieo  to 
make  alive.  This  brings  us  to  the  inevitable 
conclusion  that  regeneration  is  not  an  internal 
and  spiritual  rectification,  but  the  bringing  into 
existence  of  a  new  life.  A  spiritual  man  is 
not  a  carnal  man  highly  refined.     The  two  men 


66  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

belong  to  different  species.  Spiritual  life  is 
not  a  question  of  chronology,  but  of  biology. 
It  is  a  problem  of  origin,  and  not  a  theory  of 
development.  Regeneration  is  not  the  setting 
of  the  hands  of  a  clock,  nor  the  repairing  of 
the  mainspring  of  the  old,  but  the  creation  of  a 
new  timepiece. 

This  fact  is  emphasized  by  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  old  life  and  the  new  life.  Christ 
tells  us  that  "  that  which  is  born  of  the  flesh 
is  flesh,"  and,  "  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit 
is  spirit."  Here  the  contrast  is  not  simply  be- 
tween the  material  and  the  immaterial,  but  be- 
tween the  old  kingdom-life  and  the  new 
kingdom-life.  Paul  so  understood  it  and  so 
used  it  in  his  famous  contrasts  between  the 
"flesh"  and  the  "spirit"  (Rom.  v.  16-24;  vi. 
19 ;  viii.  4-7 ;  1  Cor.  hi.  3  ;  2  Cor.  v.  17 ;  Gal. 
iii.  3,  9),  where  "flesh"  is  used  in  contradis- 
tinction to  "  spirit  "  as  designating  either  "  man 
in  his  natural  state  apart  from  Christ,  or  the 
creaturely  side  or  aspect  of  man  in  Christ." 
This  life — the  flesh — is  presented  in  Scripture 
not  as  a  thing  to  be  improved,  but  as  a  thing 
which  God  counts  as  dead,  and  which  we  are 
called  upon  to  mortify — subdue  and  deny  in  all 
its  thoughts  and  ways.  In  the  Cross  we  see 
the  end  of  everything  pertaining  to  the  flesh 
(Gal.  v.  24).  God  expects  nothing  from  the 
flesh ;  neither  should  we.  The  old  life  should 
not  be  allowed  to  show  itself.     God  does  not 


The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life     67 

own  it.     It  has  no  existence  for  Him,     It  is 
dead. 

It  is  not  to  be  understood,  however,  that  the 
old  life  is  not  affected,  or  that  the  character 
of  the  regenerated  person  remains  unchanged. 
This  old  life  is  the  material  with  which  the 
new  life  works  in  the  creation  of  the  Christian. 
"  When  a  new  animal  is  made,"  says  Drummond, 
"  no  new  clay  is  made  ;  life  merely  enters  into 
already  existing  matter,  assimilates  more  of  the 
same  sort  and  rebuilds  it.  The  spiritual  artist 
works  in  the  same  way.  He  must  have  a  pecul- 
iar protoplasm,  a  basis  of  life,  and  that  must 
be  already  existing."  This  protoplasm  is  found 
in  the  life  of  the  natural  man.  The  mind  and 
the  character,  the  will  and  the  affections,  the 
moral  and  the  immaterial  nature — these  form 
the  basis,  or  to  state  it  more  correctly,  the  ma- 
terial out  of  which  the  Christ-life  implanted 
in  regeneration  builds  the  Christian.  Hence 
there  is  going  on  in  every  regenerated  person 
a  spiritual  transformation.  This  transforma- 
tion is  that  process  in  which  the  Christ-life 
takes  the  life-elements  of  the  natural  man  and 
builds  them  into  the  spiritual  organism  called 
the  heavenly  man.  As  the  bird-life  grasps  the 
material  protoplasm  with  which  it  is  environed 
and  builds  up  a  bird,  the  image  of  itself,  so  the 
Christ-life  grasps  the  life-elements,  the  mind 
and  will  and  the  affections  of  the  individual 
into  whom  it  comes,  and  builds  up  a  God-man, 


68  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

the  image  of  itself,  in  the  inward  nature  of 
man.  We  call  this  process  sanctification.  The 
idea  of  a  man's  character,  therefore,  as  it  ex- 
presses the  totality  of  a  man's  being,  is  only 
begun  in  regeneration,  and  the  process  proceeds 
not  by  changing  our  fleshly  nature  but  by  kill- 
ing our  fleshly  desires  and  propensities  in  the 
process  of  building  up  the  spiritual  man.  But 
so  long  as  the  flesh-life  remains,  the  propensi- 
ties and  dispositions  of  this  life  will  be  in  evi- 
dence. Evil  is  not  a  part  of  our  flesh  as  matter, 
but  it  is  a  part  of  our  nature,  and  our  present 
nature  is  a  part  of  our  fleshly  existence.  Hence 
evil  is  one  of  the  links  in  the  chain  of  our  wTorld- 
life,  and  so  long  as  we  live  in  the  world,  will, 
through  the  flesh-life,  have  a  field  for  operation. 
To  know  this  is  an  immense  relief  to  the 
heart  that  has  been  struggling  for  years  in  the 
hopeless  business  of  trying  to  improve  nature. 
It  is  also  an  immense  relief  to  the  conscience 
which  has  been  seeking  a  foundation  for  its 
peace  in  the  gradual  improvement  of  a  totally 
unimprovable  thing.  It  is  an  immense  relief 
to  the  soul  that  has  for  years  been  earnestly 
breathing  after  holiness,  but  has  looked  upon 
holiness  as  consisting  in  the  improvement  of 
that  nature  wrhich  loves  sin.  No  one  who  has 
not  experienced  it  can  conceive  the  intensity  of 
anguish,  and  the  bitterness  of  disappointment, 
which  a  soul  feels,  who,  vainly  expecting  some 
improvement  in  nature,  finds,  after  years  of 


The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life     69 

struggle,  that  the  old  nature  is  the  old  nature 
still.  God  is  not  looking  for  improvement  in  our 
old  nature,  that  is  dead  in  Christ,  and  is  simply 
the  basis  out  of  which  the  new  life  is  to  be 
built  up,  but  He  is  looking  for  the  development 
of  the  Christ-life  implanted  in  regeneration. 
To  be  led  into  a  clear  and  full  apprehension 
of  this  is  the  divine  emancipation  of  the  con- 
science. 

Y 

The  mystery  of  life  is  inexplicable,  hence 
we  do  not  hope  to  be  able  to  explain  how  this 
life  of  Christ  comes  to  be  implanted  in  the 
soul.  We  can  only  give  the  forces  which  oper- 
ate under  given  conditions  to  produce  life ;  we 
cannot  explain  the  mystery  of  their  operation. 
This,  however,  should  not  keep  us  from  receiv- 
ing the  truth  of  this  great  subject.  We  cannot 
comprehend  God,  or  the  Divine  Logos  mani- 
fested in  the  flesh,  or  the  person  and  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  but  by  faith  we  can  know  God 
and  become  recipients  of  the  redemptive  work 
of  Christ.  So,  while  we  cannot  comprehend 
the  mysterious  work  of  life-creation  within  the 
soul  through  Christ,  yet  by  faith  we  can  enter 
into  that  union  with  Him,  which  gives  eternal 
life.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  the  combi- 
nation of  forces  which  operate  in  the  produc- 
tion of  spiritual  life  within  man. 

The  source  of  this  life,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
in  Christ.      He  is  the  germ  of  spiritual  life. 


70  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

But  in  the  New  Testament,  when  this  subject 
is  discusssed,  we  find  two  things  associated  to- 
gether in  the  work  of  life-production ;  these  are 
the  Spirit  and  the  Word.  "  But  as  many  as 
received  Him  to  them  gave  He  power  to  be- 
come the  Sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that 
believe  on  His  name  ;  which  were  born  not  of 
blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the 
will  of  man,  but  of  God  "  (John  i.  12-13).  A 
parallel  text  may  be  found  in  Ephesians  (i.  13). 
"  In  whom  we  also  trusted,  after  that  ye  have 
heard  the  Word  of  Truth,  the  Gospel  of  your 
salvation  ;  in  whom  also,  after  that  ye  believed 
ye  were  sealed  with  the  Holy  Spirit  of  promise." 
Paul  says  in  another  place :  "  Because  God  hath 
from  the  beginning  chosen  you  to  salvation 
through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and  belief 
of  the  truth"  (2  Thess.  ii.  15).  Peter  to  the 
same  effect  says,  "  Seeing  ye  have  purified  your 
souls  in  obeying  the  truth  through  the  Spirit ; 
being  born  again,  not  of  corruptible  seed,  but 
of  incorruptible  by  the  word  of  God  "  (1  Peter 
i.  22-23).  These  passages  establish  the  fact  that 
the  Spirit  operating  through  the  word  implants 
the  Christ-life  in  the  soul  of  the  individual. 
We  call  this  the  new  birth. 

The  reason  for  the  use  of  the  word  seems  to 
be  that  God  does  not  wish  to  violate,  even  in 
the  supernatural  work  of  new-life  production 
in  the  soul,  the  laws  by  which  mental  processes 
are  governed.    He  meets  us  on  our  own  ground. 


The  Embryology  of  the  New  Life     71 

He  approaches  us  in  a  natural  way.  Hence  we 
are  not  overawed  by  the  supernatural  in  re- 
generation and  yet,  all  the  time,  the  super- 
natural is  predominant.  The  Gospel  is  God's 
method  of  approaching  the  soul.  In  it  are  the 
facts  upon  which  our  faith  is  founded,  and  facts 
must  forever  remain  the  basis  of  faith.  The 
Gospel  is  God's  appeal  to  the  human  heart.  It 
exhausts  all  the  sources  of  moral  power.  Every 
consideration  that  can  affect  the  intellect,  the 
conscience,  the  feelings,  the  will  and  the  hopes 
of  man  are  presented.  This  gives  us  the 
rational  basis  for  the  use  of  the  word  in  the 
life-production  process. 

This  word,  however,  is  useless  without  the 
Spirit.  To  all  moral,  and  especially  to  all  re- 
ligious truth,  there  is  an  inward  unsusceptibility, 
arising  from  the  perversity  of  the  affections  and 
will,  which  must  be  removed  before  the  soul 
can  or  will  perceive  or  be  moved  by  the  truth. 
Hence  the  Spirit  must  deal  directly  with  the 
soul.  He  comes  in  contact  not  simply  with  the 
instrument,  but  with  the  soul  itself.  At  Jericho, 
the  force  was  not  applied  to  the  ram's  horns, 
but  to  the  walls.  When  Jesus  healed  the  blind 
man,  His  power  was  not  applied  to  the  spittle, 
but  to  the  eyes.  So  God's  spirit  does  not  act 
upon  the  word,  but  upon  the  soul.  And  yet 
the  word  must  be  present  in  order  that  the  sen- 
sitized soul  may  be  led  to  see  the  Saviour 
through  whom  alone  salvation  is  secured. 


J  2  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

The  person  who  is  thus  touched  by  the  Spirit 
through  the  Word  is  brought  into  a  new  life, 
or  rather,  has  a  new  life  brought  into  him. 
The  emphasis  is  not  merely  upon  the  change  as 
initial  but  upon  the  inherent  nature  of  the 
Christian  life  as  divinely  originated.  It  is 
God's  self -communication  of  Himself  to  man. 
The  fourth  Gospel  speaks  of  this  new  spiritual 
entity  as  "eternal  life."  It  is  the  birth  in  the 
soul  of  man  of  a  new  personality  or  type  of 
manhood  that  is  Christlike  and  spiritual.  The 
process  is  analogous  to  that  of  natural  birth  and 
is  set  forth  by  Christ  under  the  figure  of  natural 
birth.  The  soul  of  man  is  the  spiritual  womb 
in  which  the  Christ-life  germ  is  planted. 

The  source  of  this  life  as  we  have  seen  is  in 
Christ.  The  legal  difficulties  in  the  way  of  its 
manifestation  are  removed  through  the  sacri- 
ficial work  of  Christ,  which  work  includes  His 
incarnation.  It  comes  to  be  implanted  in  the 
soul  as  we  have  seen  above  through  the  Spirit 
operating  through  the  "Word,  which  wrord  re- 
volves around  the  Cross. 


IV 
THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  FAITH 

AWONDEKFUL  change  has  taken  place 
in  the  intellectual  world  in  the  last  half 
century.  The  renaissance  of  science 
fructified  every  field  of  human  thought.  The 
light  turned  in  upon  the  world  of  matter  and 
life,  by  the  discovery  of  new  facts,  dissolved 
many  archaic  systems  of  thought.  Every  de- 
partment of  human  thought  was  revolutionized 
except  theology.  Here  the  scientific  method 
met  with  the  most  bitter  opposition.  Keligion 
immediately  arrayed  itself  against  science. 
This  was,  perhaps,  for  two  reasons :  First,  in 
the  beginning  the  efforts  were  destructive  in 
their  purpose  since  it  was  the  skeptical  mind 
that  attacked  the  problem  of  a  scientific  expla- 
nation of  religious  phenomena;  and,  second, 
the  ancient  and  established  moulds  into  which 
theological  thought  had  crystallized  refused  to 
yield  readily  to  the  new  process. 

We  have  at  last,  however,  passed  the  skep- 
tical period  and  now  under  the  touch  of  friendly 
fingers  Christian  thought  is  beginning  to  con- 
form to  the  facts  of  biology  and  psychology 
and  geology.      There  was  a  time  when  the 

73 


74  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

student  of  religion  was  concerned  only  with  the 
formation  of  creeds.  The  work  of  redemption 
was  reduced  to  a  system  of  doctrine.  The  life 
of  Christ  was  set  forth  as  an  article  of  faith. 
Dogmatic  systems  of  theology  were  set  up  and 
enforced  as  the  only  way  of  salvation.  That 
time  has  passed.  Now  the  Christian  teacher 
and  writer  recognize  that  Christianity  belongs 
not  simply  to  the  realm  of  theory,  but  to  the 
domain  of  being.  And  recognizing  this  they 
are  bringing  the  facts  of  science  to  bear  upon 
religious  phenomena.  This  is  as  it  should  be. 
No  truth  is  without  religious  significance. 
Every  fact  in  the  universe  should  be  used  to 
enrich  our  knowledge  of  the  greatest  of  all 
facts,  the  redemption  of  the  race. 

One  of  the  results  of  this  change  in  front  has 
been  to  supplant  analysis  with  synthesis  in  the 
study  of  religious  phenomena.  Analysis  is 
destructive  of  life,  and  Christianity  is  a  life. 
The  dissecting  room  may  be  necessary  for  the 
demonstrator  in  anatomy,  but  dissection  means 
death.  The  most  perfect  bodily  organ  is  worth- 
less and  lifeless  if  separated  from  the  other 
organs  of  the  body.  This  is  true  of  spiritual 
life.  The  various  elements  which  enter  into 
the  spiritual  organism  are  not  isolated  factors. 
The  spiritual  life  is  a  unit.  Conversion  and  re- 
generation go  together.  Faith  and  repentance 
are  related  functions  of  the  quickened  soul. 
And  these  are  all  joined  in  and  are  necessary  to 


The  Psychology  of  Faith  75 

the  outward  expression  of  the  religious  life. 
Spiritual  life— that  vital  entity  implanted  in  the 
soul  in  regeneration — expresses  itself  in  the 
various  ways  described  in  the  Bible.  These 
may  be  catalogued  as  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suf- 
fering, gentleness,  goodness,  meekness,  temper- 
ance, humility,  unselfishness,  beneficence,  self- 
sacrifice  and  faith,  and  whatever  else  belongs  to 
the  Christian  character;  but  the  spiritual  or- 
ganism is  not  made  up  of  these  things  by  a 
process  of  addition  or  multiplication;  the 
new  creature  is  one  thing  and  is  simply  mani- 
festing itself  in  these  ways,  and  not  in  these 
ways  alone,  but  in  every  conceivable  way  that 
love  and  duty  can  prompt.  These  expressions 
of  the  Christian  life  are  functions  of  the  spiri- 
tual ego. 

In  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  faith 
is  one  of  the  chief  functions  of  the  new  life. 
The  participation  in  all  the  blessings  of  redemp- 
tion depend  upon  it ;  the  support  and  progress 
of  the  spiritual  life  are  essentially  connected 
with  it.  Christ  divided  men  into  two  classes 
from  the  standpoint  of  religion,  not  morals— 
those  who  believe,  and  those  who  believed  not. 
He  marvelled  twice,  once  at  men's  unbelief, 
once  at  a  Roman  centurion's  faith.  When  men 
came  to  Him  with  the  question,  "  What  shall 
we  do  that  we  may  work  the  works  of  God  ?  " 
Jesus  answered,  "  This  is  the  work  of  God,  that 
ye  believe  in  Him  whom  He  hath  sent."     Faith 


76  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

stands  in  the  forefront  of  all  New  Testament 
teaching. 

I 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  define 
faith.  None  of  these  are  entirely  satisfactory 
for  the  simple  reason  that  all  of  them  have 
considered  faith  as  a  doctrinal  requirement  in  a 
plan  of  salvation.  Dr.  B.  W.  Pope  defines 
faith  to  be  "  a  divinely- wrought  belief  in  the 
record  concerning  Christ  and  trust  in  His 
Person  as  a  personal  Saviour."1  Dr.  A.  H. 
Strong  defines  faith  to  be  "  certitude  with  re- 
gard to  spiritual  realities,  upon  the  testimony  of 
our  rational  nature  and  upon  the  testimony 
of  God."  2  But  these  definitions  do  not  define 
faith.  They  simply  state  the  result  of  faith's 
operations.  Behind  a  "  divinely- wrought  be- 
lief "  there  is  something  that  does  the  believing. 
As  the  act  of  recollecting  is  the  product  of 
memory  so  the  act  of  believing  is  the  product  of 
faith.  Faith  is  a  function  of  the  soul  and  as  such 
it  is*  to  be^  classed  with  memory,  imagination, 
and  the  other  conscious  elements  of  the  ego. 
"  Tt  is,"  says  Fletcher,  "  a  mental  state  that  is 
indispensable  if  the  human  personality  is  to  pass 
from  lower  levels  of  existence  to  the  highest 
spiritual  experience  of  the  moral  and  religious 
life.  Kegarded  psychologically,  faith  is  a  state 
of  consciousness   which    is    capable  of   being 

1  "  Compendium  of  Theology,"  Vol.  II,  p.  376. 

2  l<  Systematic  Theology,"  p.  3. 


The  Psychology  of  Faith  77 

analyzed  and  understood  like  any  other  psych- 
ical  state." ' 

If  faith  is  a  function  of  the  soul,  a  method 
of  the  soul's  operation  in  performing  certain 
conscious  actions,  and  not  a  mere  doctrinal  re- 
quirement, then  we  may  expect  to  find  in  it,  on 
close  analysis,  somewhat  of  the  three  elements 
of  consciousness, — thinking,  feeling,  and  will- 
ing. This  Ave  find  to  be  the  case.  The  faith- 
state  as  reflected  in  the  writings  of  the  New 
Testament  can  be  readily  analyzed  into  these 
three  elements.  "  Sometimes,"  says  Fletcher, 
"  the  intellectual  factor  (as  belief)  operates 
most  prominently,  at  other  times  the  emotional 
(as  a  feeling  of  trust)  bears  sway,  and  yet  again 
the  moral  side  (as  purposeful  surrender)  at  times 
appears  in  the  forefront.  Faith  is  a  complex 
state  of  mind  in  which  all  of  these  elements  are 
present  within  the  personality.  But  one  or  the 
other,  according  to  the  temperament  and  dis- 
position of  the  subject,  takes  the  lead  and  gives 
character  to  the  whole  state."  2 

Faith  may  then  be  defined  as  that  form  of 
conscious  activity  by  which  the  soul  admits  as 
knowledge  what  is  received  only  on  evidence  or 
authority  internal  or  external.  This  definition 
will  clear  away  a  great  deal  of  the  misconcep- 
tion which  has  gathered  about  the  nature  of 
faith.     We  have  no  longer  the  task  on  our 

1  "  Psychology  of  the  New  Testament,"  p.  219. 
3  Ibid.,  p.  220, 


78  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

hands  of  discriminating  between  an  historical 
faith  and  a  saving  faith ;  between  a  natural 
faith  and  the  faith  that  is  supernatural.  The 
nature  of  faith  throughout  the  conscious  act  of 
believing  remains  the  same.  The  functional  act 
of  the  soul,  by  which  it  receives  as  knowledge 
whatever  is  presented  on  evidence,  remains 
the  same  whether  the  evidence  be  of  super- 
natural phenomena  or  of  natural  phenomena. 
The  difference  arising  in  the  effect  which  the 
exercise  of  this  function  produces  in  the  life  of 
the  individual  does  not  grow  out  of  a  difference 
in  the  nature  of  faith,  but  out  of  the  difference 
in  the  character  of  the  knowledge  thus  received 
and  the  relation  which  that  knowledge  bears  to 
the  ego  or  self.  The  facts  of  salvation, — the 
story  of  redemption,  including  the  crucifixion  of 
Christ,  His  burial  and  His  resurrection, — cannot 
influence  the  soul  and  cause  it  to  surrender  to 
the  Christ  revealed  in  the  Gospel,  until  the 
relation,  subsisting  between  these  supernatural 
facts  and  the  individual  ego  or  self  and  its 
eternal  well  being,  is  revealed  to  the  soul  and 
becomes  a  matter  of  consciousness.  Hence  men 
hear  the  Gospel  and  receive  it  as  a  statement 
of  historical  facts,  but  they  are  not  moved  by 
it.  Why  are  they  not  moved  ?  There  is  but 
one  explanation,  the  subsistent  relation  between 
the  individual  and  the  Gospel  story  has  never 
become  a  matter  of  consciousness  with  them. 
These  facts  cannot  become  a  matter  of  experi- 


The  Psychology  of  Faith  79 

enoe  in  the  life  of  the  individual  until  they  are 
spiritually  discerned.  This  takes  place  with  the 
quickening  of  the  ego  in  regeneration,  in  which 
process  there  is  implanted  the  life  of  Christ  by 
the  Holy  Spirit.  This  spiritual  discernment 
has  to  do,  not  primarily  with  the  Gospel  story 
as  an  historical  fact,  but  with  the  relation  sub- 
sisting between  these  facts  and  the  soul.  This 
relation  is  entirely  spiritual  and  can  be  compre- 
hended only  by  a  spiritually  sensitized  soul. 
So  soon  as  the  subsistent  relation  between  the 
soul  and  Christ  is  discerned  faith  admits  that 
relation  as  a  matter  of  knowledge  and  makes  it 
a  fact  of  consciousness.  The  result  is  the  Chris- 
tian life. 

"We  have  seen  that  the  type  of  life  which  the 
natural  man  possesses  is  not  subject  to  the  law 
of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be.  This  type  of  life 
cannot  discern  spiritual  relationships  for  it  is 
dead  to  the  heavenly.  "  No  man  can  say  that 
Jesus  is  Lord  but  by  the  Holy  Spirit "  (1  Cor. 
xii.  3).  Hence  the  natural  man  cannot  perceive 
the  subsistent  relation  between  Christ  and  the 
soul  because  this  relation  is  only  spiritually  dis- 
cerned (1  Cor.  ii.  14).  In  the  kingdom  of 
Christianity,  as  in  every  other  kingdom  of  life, 
the  first  step  towards  the  production  of  a  new 
organism  is  the  implantation  of  the  life  germ. 
This  is  unmistakably  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures. 
"  And  you  hath  He  quickened,  who  were  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins.     Even  when  we  were 


80  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

dead  in  sins,  hath  made  us  alive  together  with 
Christ.  For  we  are  His  workmanship,  created 
in  Christ  unto  good  works"  (Eph.  ii.  1-10). 
Saving  faith  is,  therefore,  not  a  new  element  of 
the  old  life,  but  an  act  of  the  new  creature. 
It  is  not  a  new  spiritual  commodity  which  the 
old  life  generates  and  by  which  it  is  changed, 
but  it  is  the  use  of  an  old  function  by  a  new 
power.  It  does  not  produce  a  new  entity,  for 
the  new  birth  is  the  product  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
operating  through  the  word.  Its  function  is  to 
produce  the  consciousness  of  the  spiritual  rela- 
tion subsisting  between  Christ  and  the  soul  in 
the  ego  or  self  and  thereby  work  a  new  expe- 
rience. This  experience  we  call  conversion,  and 
it  consists  in  the  turning  of  the  personal  ego,  in 
its  threefold  power  of  thinking,  feeling  and 
willing,  to  Jesus  Christ  as  Saviour.  This  ex- 
perience is  different  from  the  new  birth  in  that 
the  new  birth  is  the  implanting  of  the  Christ- 
life,  which  implantation  results  in  the  quicken- 
ing of  the  soul ;  conversion  is  the  turning  of  the 
soul  under  the  stimulant  of  that  quickening  to 
the  Christ  of  the  Gospels  as  Saviour. 

II 

With  this  definition  of  faith  let  us  consider 
it  in  relation  to  other  mental  activities,  activi- 
ties which  we  are  informed  are  opposed  to  faith. 
The  two  acts,  knowing  and  reasoning,  which 


The  Psychology  of  Faith  81 

are  products  of  the  thinking  element  of  con- 
sciousness, are  most  persistently  set  over  in 
opposition  to  faith,  which  we  are  informed  is 
purely  a  product  of  feeling. 

There  is  a  wide-spread  notion  that  knowledge 
and  faith  are  in  the  inverse  ratio.  But  when 
we  bring  the  two  together,  in  a  comparative 
study,  we  find  that  they  are  in  that  perfect 
harmony  which  is  required  of  two  actions  of 
the  same  ego.  Knowledge  is  what  a  man 
knows,  faith  is  what  a  man  believes.  A  man 
knoAVS  what  has  been  verified  by  facts  that  have 
come  under  his  own  observation  or  experience ; 
a  man  believes  what  has  been  presented  to  him 
upon  authority.  Hence,  faith,  one  function  of 
the  ego,  comes  before  knowledge,  which  is  a 
result  of  the  exercise  of  another  function. 
Therefore  faith  is  superior  to  knowledge,  in 
that  without  faith  every  man  would  be  tre- 
mendously limited  in  knowledge,  since  most  of 
the  things  which  fill  up  the  cabinets  of  infor- 
mation have  been  received  on  faith.  Again, 
put  faith  to  the  test  and  you  always  have 
knowledge.  Take  the  history  of  the  race,  the 
geography  of  the  world,  the  speculative  sciences, 
and  these  are  all  received  by  the  average  stu- 
dent upon  testimony — they  are  matters  of  faith. 
Put  these  things  to  the  test,  demonstrate  them 
for  one's  self  and  they  become  matters  of  fact- 
knowledge.  So  faith  goes  before  knowledge; 
it  goes  where  knowledge  cannot  go;  it  is  a 


82  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

higher  sort  of  knowledge.  It  enables  one  to 
rise  above  the  range  of  knowledge.  It  is  like 
the  condor  of  the  Andes,  the  bird  of  highest 
flight.  When  the  tempest  comes,  weaker  birds 
fly  to  their  coverts,  under  the  cliffs,  and  where 
they  can  be  protected  from  the  fury  of  the 
elements.  Not  so  the  mighty  condor.  Turn- 
ing his  eye  upward,  he  cleaves  his  way  to  the 
empyrean,  and  there  basks  in  the  sunshine 
above  the  tornado's  fury  and  beyond  the  storm- 
cloud's  power.  Thus  faith  enables  us  to  mount 
up  on  eagle's  wings,  above  the  clouds  and  dark- 
ness that  hover  over  the  lowlands  of  reason 
and  knowledge,  in  that  everlasting  light  which 
knows  no  shadow,  flowing  in  peace  and  stillness 
from  the  throne  of  the  Eternal. 

The  same  thing  is  true  with  reference  to  the 
relation  between  faith  and  reason.  There  are 
those  who  seem  to  think  that  faith  and  reason 
stand  opposed  to  one  another,  and  that  reason 
is  superior  to  faith.  On  close  analysis  we  find 
that  there  is  no  conflict  between  faith  and  rea- 
son. Sir  William  Hamilton  says :  "  We  know 
what  rests  on  reason,  we  believe  what  rests  on 
authority."  This  would  bring  us  to  the  con- 
clusion that  reason  itself  rests  upon  faith,  for 
the  data  with  which  reason  works  in  forming 
her  judgments  are,  in  the  main,  accepted  on 
authority  and  are  therefore  matters  of  faith. 
Not  only  so,  but  faith  is  positive,  reason  nega- 
tive.    "  Reason,"  says  Combe,  "  is  the  superior 


The  Psychology  of  Faith  83 

and  predominant  element  which  settled  the 
direction  in  which  all  other  faculties  shall 
expand."  Emmanuel  Kant,  in  his  "Critique 
of  Pure  Reason,"  says:  "The  greatest  and, 
perhaps,  the  sole  use  of  all  philosophy,  of  all 
pure  reason  is,  after  all,  merely  negative,  since 
it  serves  not  as  an  organon  for  the  enlargement 
of  knowledge,  but  as  discipline  for  its  delimi- 
nation,  and  instead  of  discovering  truth,  has 
only  the  modest  merit  of  preventing  error." 
This  deliverance  of  Kant  was  quoted  and  en- 
dorsed by  Prof.  T.  H.  Huxley  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century  for  February,  1889.  Surely  those  who 
exalt  reason  against  faith  will  respect  Kant  and 
Huxley,  and  not  suspect  them  with  being  biased 
in  favour  of  evangelical  religion.  Hodge  tells 
us,  "That  reason  is  that  faculty  which  per- 
ceives, compares,  judges,  and  infers."  But  rea- 
son must  always  work  with  the  material  in 
hand.  Its  work  is  not  to  gather  material,  but 
to  separate  the  material  gathered  into  its  par- 
ticular elements.  Therefore  reason  does  not 
lead  out  in  the  mind's  activities ;  it  simply 
directs  the  mind  in  its  investigations  so  that 
the  individual  will  not  go  astray.  Faith  sweeps 
beyond  this.  It  goes  beyond  reason.  And  yet 
it  uses  reason.  Reason  acts  as  a  check.  It 
prevents  one  from  believing  things  that  are 
contradictory  and  absurd.  The  two,  faith  and 
reason,  go  hand  in  hand  in  the  search  for  truth. 
Reason  could  not  go  one  step  without  faith, 


84  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

and  faith  would  likely  go  astray  if  it  were  not 
for  reason.  Faith  demonstrates  that  it  is  not 
unreasonable  to  believe  in  Christ.  The  expe- 
rience which  it  brings,  the  consciousness  of  the 
divine  acceptance,  demonstrates  to  reason  the 
truths  of  Christianity,  truths  which  could  never 
be  known  by  reason  alone.  It  is  reason  that 
prevents  our  going  wrong,  but  it  is  faith  that 
enables  us  to  go  at  all. 

In  the  Christian  life  faith  furnishes  the  basis 
for  both  knowledge  and  reason.  The  Holy 
Spirit  taking  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  and 
bringing  them  to  bear  on  the  faith-function  of 
the  soul,  makes  the  individual  conscious  of  the 
relation  subsisting  between  the  ego  or  self  and 
the  facts  of  the  Gospel,  and,  through  this  con- 
sciousness, produces  in  the  individual  an  ex- 
perience. This  experience  furnishes  a  conscious 
basis  in  the  soul  for  both  knowledge  and  rea- 
son. Men  know  what  comes  within  their  own 
personal  experience.  This  experience  is  a  fact 
of  consciousness  which  reason  cannot  deny. 
Hence  faith,  knowledge,  and  reason  become 
closely  allied  in  the  Christian  life.  Faith  brings 
the  soul  into  the  consciousness  of  the  spiritual 
life  implanted  in  regeneration,  and  this  con- 
sciousness, being  a  fact  of  experience  which 
reason  cannot  deny,  is  accepted  and  made  the 
basis  of  a  new  life.  This  is  the  psychological 
basis  for  the  statement  in  Hebrews :  "  Now 
faith  is  the  assurance  of  things  hoped  for,  the 


The  Psychology  of  Faith  85 

conviction — the  demonstration — of  things  not 
seen  "  (Heb.  xii.  1). 

All  the  hopes  of  the  Christian  are  not  only 
grounded  on  faith,  but  they  are  grounded  in 
faith.  Outside  of  our  trust  in  Christ  there  can 
be  no  legitimate  ground  for  hope ;  in  this  con- 
fidence and  trust  in  Christ  there  is  not  only  the 
ground  for  hope,  but  the  seed-bed,  the  germ- 
inating place,  the  incubation  for  every  hope  of 
the  soul.  Faith,  therefore,  is  the  whole  Chris- 
tian life  in  germ.  But  faith  is  not  only  the  basis 
of  hope ;  it  is^also  the  demonstration  of  things 
not  seen.  Faith  furnishes  the  proof  of  the 
existence  of  the  unseen  world.  The  physical 
senses  give  to  the  soul  the  knowledge  of  the 
material  Avorld.  Through  these  senses  the 
material  objects  are  inwrought  upon  the  soul 
and  become  a  part  of  the  personal  consciousness. 
It  is  with  them  as  matters  of  consciousness  that 
we  deal.  But  there  is  a  world  higher  than  the 
material.  Have  we  no  communication  with  it  ? 
The  faith-function  of  the  soul  is  the  sense  by 
which  the  things  of  the  spiritual  world  are 
brought  into  the  personal  consciousness  and 
become  matters  of  experience  with  us.  A 
personal  experience  is  the  end  of  argument. 
It  is  a  fact.  It  is  a  matter  of  knowledge.  It 
is  an  element  which  reason  has  to  accept. 
Hence,  so  long  as  our  natures  can  trust,  so  long 
as  our  faith  can  unfold  to  us  a  morality,  so  long 
as  our  hearts  can  pray,  the  simple  soul  need  not 


86  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

bewail  its  want  of  logic  and  its  lack  of 
argument  to  prove  the  verities  of  God.  As 
Dante  says : 

'  i  And  from  this  credence  it  is  fit  and  right 
To  syllogize,  though  other  sight  be  none  : 
Therefore  faith  holds  the  place  of  argument. " 


III 

We  turn  now  to  consider  faith  as  set  forth  in 
the  New  Testament.  The  word  faith,  "  Pistis," 
occurs  two  hundred  and  twenty  times  in  the 
New  Testament.  The  verb  to  believe,  "  Pis- 
tueo  "  occurs  two  hundred  and  thirty  times. 
John  uses  the  word  faith  only  once  (1  John 
v.  4),  but  he  uses  the  verb  to  believe  more 
than  one  hundred  times.  Paul  uses  more 
largely  the  word  faith,  using  it  in  his  Epistles 
one  hundred  and  thirty-six  times.  In  Hebrews, 
which  is  Pauline  in  thought,  the  word  faith  is  used 
thirty-one  times.  Because  of  this  divergence 
between  Paul  and  John  in  the  use  of  words  to 
express  the  soul's  acceptance  of  Christ,  inter- 
preters differ  considerably  in  their  judgment  as 
to  the  central  idea  in  the  New  Testament 
presentation  of  faith.  This  makes  it  necessary 
for  us  to  study  the  question  first  from  Paul's 
standpoint,  and  then  from  John's  standpoint ; 
after  that  we  can  compare  the  two  conceptions 
and  draw  a  conclusion  as  to  the  teaching  of  the 
New  Testament. 


The  Psychology  of  Faith  87 

With  Paul  faith  is  a  very  rich  conception. 
It  is  at  once  an  attitude  of  receptivity  and  of 
sympathy.  In  Paul's  way  of  thinking  it  is  an 
affair  of  the  heart.  It  is  with  the  heart  that 
man  believeth  unto  righteousness  (Rom.  x.  10). 
It  is  through  faith  that  Christ  dwells  in  the 
heart  (Eph.  iii.  17).  But  Paul  does  not  forget 
the  thinking  elements  of  consciousness,  for  to 
him  it  is  through  the  mind  that  the  heart  or 
feeling  element  is  to  be  reached.  There  must 
be  an  intellectual  perception  of  truth,  for  how 
can  they  believe  on  Him  whom  they  have  not 
heard  ?  So  Paul  concludes  that  "  faith  cometh 
by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God  " 
(Roin.  x.  14-17).  In  Paul's  conception  there  is 
also  the  idea  of  activity  as  well  as  receptivity. 
Here  the  volitional  element  of  consciousness 
enters.  In  faith  men  enter  into  active  fellow- 
ship with  Christ.  Faith  is,  therefore,  in  his 
thought  inseparable  from  all  good  choices  and 
actions  (Rom.  xiv.  25).  It  includes  the  choice 
and  pursuit  of  truth  (2  Thess.  ii.  1 2).  It  implies 
separation  to  the  righteousness  of  God  (Rom. 
x.  3).  It  is,  in  short,  the  movement  of  the  entire 
personality  towards  God  and  righteousness.  In 
faith  man  enters,  in  the  thought  of  Paul,  into 
fellowship  and  sympathy  with  God.  He  is  con- 
nected with  Christ  in  such  a  way  as  to  become 
one  with  Christ.  To  live  by  faith  is  synony- 
mous with  living  in  Christ,  and  with  Christ 
living  in  the  believer  (Gal.  ii.  20).     It  denotes  a 


88  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

mystical  union,  a  mutual  fellowship.  This  is 
the  inner  consciousness,  or  experience  of  salva- 
tion which  makes  Christ  a  real  thing  to  the 
believer.  By  it  a  new  life-relationship  is  set  up 
in  the  heart  and  man  comes  into  fellowship 
with  God  and  appropriates  all  the  blessings  of 
salvation. 

In  John  we  find  a  few  passages  in  which  the 
verb  to  believe  is  used  in  the  sense  of  believing 
that  a  thing  is  true.  He  tells  us  that  he  wrote 
his  Gospel  that  the  reader  might  believe  that 
Jesus  was  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God.  In  the 
first  epistle,  where  he  is  refuting  the  errors  of 
Gnosticism  which  denied  the  true  incarnation 
of  Christ,  he  represents  faith  as  the  opposite  of 
this  denial.  In  this  sense  faith  is  an  affirmation. 
Reference  to  these  passages,  however,  will  show 
that  the  object  of  this  faith  is  ultimately  a 
person,  "  God  "  or  "  Christ,"  so  that,  after  all, 
these  passages  connote  trustful  reliance  upon  the 
personal  object  mentioned.  But  this  is  only 
the  fringe  of  John's  teaching  on  faith.  He 
evidently  understood  faith  to  be  connected  with 
sonship,  and  that  the  one  involved  the  other 
(John  iii.  16).  Believing  on  Christ  and  coining 
to  Christ  are  one  and  the  same  thing  (John 
xxxiii.  50-51).  In  John's  view  faith  is  certainly 
used  in  a  sense  sufficiently  comprehensive  to 
include  all  that  men  think  or  feel  or  do  in 
appropriating  the  salvation  which  is  offered  in 
Christ.     John's  conception  of  faith  is  something 


The  Psychology  of  Faith  89 

more  than  the  persuasion  that  Jesus  is  the  Son 
of  God  accompanied  with  the  confession  that 
He  is  the  Christ.  It  is  something  more  than  a 
stage  of  knowledge.  To  believe  is  to  have  the 
Son  (1  John  v.  12) ;  it  is  to  receive  Jesus  Christ 
(John  i.  12-13) ;  it  is  to  come  to  the  Son  (John 
vi.  35) ;  it  is  to  enter  into  the  possession  of 
eternal  life  (John  vi.  47). 

By  comparison  we  find  that  John  and  Paul 
agree  in  their  understanding  of  faith.  For 
both  it  is  more  than  belief  ;  it  involves  personal 
relation  and  fellowship.  Paul  expresses  it  by 
such  phrases  as  "  in  Christ,"  "  dying  with 
Christ,"  and  "  newness  of  life."  John  ex- 
presses it  by  such  phrases  as  "abiding  in 
Christ,"  "  living  through  Christ,"  and  "  eating 
the  flesh  of  Christ."    In  both  there  is  a  mvs- 

Ml 

tical  element.  Faith  is  life-fellowship  with 
Christ.  It  is  no  mere  possession  of  truths  which 
lie  dead  and  cold  in  the  mind ;  it  is  a  vital  al- 
liance with  Christ,  the  hiding  of  the  life  with 
Him  in  God.  They  both  looked  upon  faith  as 
the  very  opposite  of  meritorious  works.  It 
had  power,  but  that  power  was  the  vital  life 
with  which  it  connected  the  believer.  The  sav- 
ing power  of  faith  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  joins 
the  life  of  the  individual  to  the  life  of  Christ. 
It  furnishes,  as  a  function  of  the  soul,  the 
medium  of  intercommunication  between  the 
old  life  and  the  world  of  spiritual  realities. 
Faith  is,   then,  an  act  of  the  whole  man. 


90  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

The  whole  personality,  viewed  as  focussed  in 
the  heart,  believes  intellectually,  feels  trustingly, 
and  yields  willingly  to  God  in  Christ.  The 
man  himself  is  the  believer ;  there  is  no  act  in 
which  the  ego  or  self  more  absolutely  gathers 
up  the  whole  being  than  in  believing.  As  a 
function  of  the  soul,  faith,  in  the  act  of  believ- 
ing, is  the  whole  soul  going  out  towards  God  in 
Christ,  looking  up  to  the  Cross  for  salvation 
from  sin,  and  bowing  to  the  will  of  the  Lord 
for  service. 

IV 

It  remains  now  to  point  out  the  relation  be- 
tween faith  and  a  few  of  the  most  intimately 
related  phenomena  of  the  spiritual  life. 

As  a  state  of  consciousness  faith  is  a  complex 
experience  springing  from  the  depths  of  the 
personality  when  influenced  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
God  enters  the  life,  as  we  have  seen,  through 
the  Holy  Spirit.  In  a  way  surpassing  human 
comprehension  He  fructifies  the  soul  by  the  im- 
plantation of  the  Christ-life.  The  coming  of 
this  life  into  the  soul  constitutes  the  "  quicken- 
ing" spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  the 
"  new  birth "  produced  through  the  Spirit 
(John  iii.  3-8).  This  "new  birth"  affects  the 
soul  and  the  result  is  an  immediate  response 
which  we  call  conversion.  We  have  all  along 
been  told  that  regeneration  and  conversion  are 
the  two  sides  of  the  same  act,    regeneration 


The  Psychology  of  Faith  91 

being  God's  side  and  conversion  being  man's 
side.  This  is  true  and  yet  there  is  a  biological 
distinction  which  it  does  not  comprehend.  The 
divine  side  of  this  transaction  is  the  implanta- 
tion of  a  new  and  higher  life,  the  Christ-life ; 
the  human  side  of  this  transaction  is  the  re- 
sponse of  the  soul  to  the  awakening  produced 
by  the  incoming  of  this  new  life.  Faith  is 
related  both  to  the  incoming  Christ-life  and  to 
the  old  personality.  It  is  the  first  act  of  the 
Christ-life;  it  is  the  last  act  of  the  old  per- 
sonality. As  such  it  unites  the  two  into  one 
conscious  experience.  "  There  must  be  a  uni- 
fying principle,"  says  Dr.  Inge,  "  in  which  dif- 
ferent activities  of  oar  nature  are  harmonized 
as  activities  of  one  person,  directed  towards  one 
satisfying  end.  It  is  in  this  unifying  experience 
that  faith  for  the  first  time  comes  fully  into 
its  own."  l 

The  result  of  faith's  operations,  as  a  unify- 
ing principle  in  the  soul,  is  the  new  creature. 
In  the  New  Testament  the  new  life  into  which 
human  personality  passes  is  viewed  from  many 
standpoints.  In  terms  of  life  it  is  called  the 
new  birth.  Mysticism  sees  in  it  union  with 
Christ  and  fellowship  with  Him.  Keligious 
devotion  views  it  as  consecration  and  sanctifi- 
cation.  But  behind  the  diversity  of  description 
and  the  complexity  of  incipient  doctrine  result- 
ing therefrom  there  lies  a  unity  of  thought 
1  "  Faith  and  Ite  Psychology,"  p.  231. 


92  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

which  finds  expression  in  the  term  "  new 
creature."  This  new  creature  is  a  new  per- 
sonality. The  change  wrought  in  the  soul, 
looked  at  from  the  human  side,  is  produced  by 
faith.  Faith  as  a  function  of  the  soul  admits 
.  the  facts  stated  in  the  Gospel  as  knowledge,  and 
these  facts  being  inwrought  upon  the  soul  be- 
come matters  of  consciousness.  The  quickened 
soul  perceiving  the  subsistent  relation  between 
itself  and  the  Christ  thus  presented  appropriates 
the  new  life  offered  and  the  result  is  a  new  ex- 
perience. "  The  supernatural  scheme  of  the 
Bible,"  says  Dr.  Laidlaw,  "  emerges  in  human 
experience.  The  religion  of  revelation — a  sys- 
tem of  supernatural  facts — touches  at  this  point 
the  natural  scheme  of  man  and  his  being ;  for 
the  supernatural,  in  this  form  of  a  personal 
spiritual  change,  becomes  a  fact  of  conscious- 
ness." ' 

Here  is  the  basis  of  Christianity.  It  is  a 
matter  of  life  and  therefore  of  consciousness. 
The  active  state,  the  state  of  consciousness  that 
is  fundamental  to  all  outward  manifestations  of 
the  Christian  life,  is  faith.  It  is  also  funda- 
mental to  all  the  inward  experiences.  A  con- 
vert may  have  a  very  imperfect  doctrinal 
system  of  belief,  his  view  about  the  nature  of 
the  Trinity  or  the  Atonement  or  the  character 
of  the  relation  subsisting  between  the  divine 
and  the  human  natures  in  Christ  may  be  very 
1  '■  The  Bible  Doctrine  of  Man,"  p.  249. 


The  Psychology  of  Faith  93 

hazy,  but  if  through  the  Spirit  he  is  led  to 
trust  himself  to  the  divine  good-will  he  may 
have  the  experience  of  deliverance  before  he 
understands  the  rationale  of  it.  The  teaching 
of  Christianity  in  this  respect  is  profoundly  in 
accord  with  the  processes  of  life  on  other 
levels.  A  child  trusts  its  parent's  love  and  acts 
upon  that  feeling  long  before  it  understands. 
Subsequent  understanding  may  deepen  the 
trust,  but  the  instinctive  feeling  of  the  child 
precedes  the  reasoned  reflection  of  later  years. 
So  with  the  Christian,  faith  goes  before  in  the 
development  of  the  life  of  conscious  repose. 


SPIRITUAL  GROWTH 

THE  origin,  growth,  and  energies  of  liv- 
ing things  are  the  subjects  which  have 
always  engaged  the  attention  of 
thinking  men.  These  are  the  subjects  with 
which  we  are  most  constantly  confronted  in  na- 
ture. The  world  is  full  of  life,  and  life  is  an 
active  principle,  the  chief  characteristics  of 
which  are  growth  and  reproduction.  In  our 
observation  in  nature  we  see  the  mysterious 
vital  principle,  called  life,  seizing  upon  the 
matter  with  which  it  is  environed  and  building 
that  matter  into  organic  structures.  This  proc- 
ess, which  we  call  growth,  is  the  fundamental 
distinction  between  the  living  and  the  not  liv- 
ing. The  crystal  increases  and  the  stone  en- 
larges, but  this  is  by  accretion  and  not  growth. 
The  living  organism  grows.  In  the  former  in- 
stance enlargement  is  the  result  of  adding  new 
particles  externally ;  the  other,  growth,  is  the 
unfolding  of  an  internal  life.  The  two  proc- 
esses belong  to  different  worlds.  The  last  be- 
longs to  the  living  world,  the  first  to  the  dead. 

I 
In  nature,  as  we  have  seen,  all  life  comes 

94 


Spiritual  Growth  95 

from  antecedent  life  and  follows  in  its  unfold- 
ing the  law  of  conformity  to  type.  This  law 
is  defined  by  Darwin  as  "  That  fundamental 
agreement  in  structure  which  we  see  in  organic 
beings  of  the  same  class,  and  which  is  quite 
independent  of  their  habits."  According  to 
this  law  every  living  thing  that  comes  into  the 
world  is  compelled  to  stamp  upon  its  offspring 
the  image  of  itself.  If  we  are  to  follow  out 
the  analogy  of  nature  this  process  maintains  in 
the  spiritual  world.  We  have  seen  that  the 
spiritual  life  is  an  endowment  from  the  spiri- 
tual world,  and  that  the  living  Spirit  of  Christ 
dwells  in  the  Christian.  Eegeneration  may  be 
defined  as  "  God's  self -communication  of  Him- 
self to  man."  It  is  the  implantation  of  a  new 
life  in  the  soul  of  man,  a  life  different  in 
quality  to  anything  else  in  nature.  This  con- 
stitutes the  separate  kingdom  of  Christ  and 
gives  to  Christianity  alone  of  all  the  religions 
of  mankind  the  strange  mark  of  divinity. 

After  the  implantation  of  the  new  life  we 
should  expect,  from  the  analogies  of  biology, 
two  things:  First,  that  this  new  life  would 
unfold  and  grow  gradually  into  maturity  ;  and 
second,  that  it  would  follow  the  law  of  con- 
formity to  type  and  reproduce  the  Christ  type 
in  the  character  of  the  individual  into  whose 
life  it  comes.  On  the  first  of  these  there  can 
be  little  controversy.  The  thing  that  strikes 
even  the  most  casual  observer  is  the  gradual- 


96  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

ness  of  growth.  Development  into  maturity  is 
a  process.  When  the  dead  atoms  of  carbon, 
hydrogen,  oxygen,  and  nitrogen,  are  seized 
upon  by  life,  the  organism  is  at  first  very 
simple.  It  possesses  few  functions.  Christ 
recognized  this  fundamental  process — "  First 
the  blade,"  says  He,  "  then  the  ear,  then  the 
full  corn  in  the  ear."  The  second,  that  the 
life  implanted  in  regeneration  should  produce 
the  Christ  type  in  the  character  of  the  individ- 
ual, is  recognized  throughout  the  teaching  of 
the  New  Testament.  The  apostle  reiterates 
that  the  Christian  in  the  beginning  of  his  career 
is  "  a  babe,"  and  that  he  is  to  grow  to  the  u  full 
stature  of  manhood."  We  are  again  and  again 
admonished  to  "  put  on  the  new  man,  which  is 
renewed  in  knowledge  after  the  image  of  Him 
that  created  him."  And  we  are  expressly  told 
that  the  end  and  goal  of  Christianity  is  to 
reproduce  in  the  Christian  the  Christ  type : 
"  Whom  He  did  foreknow  He  also  did  predesti- 
nate to  be  conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son." 
This  conformation  is  the  result  of  a  process. 
It  is  accomplished  by  the  unfolding  of  the 
Christ-life  implanted  in  regeneration.  In  the 
process  of  spiritual  growth  the  new  life  appro- 
priates the  life  elements  of  the  soul  and  builds 
these  elements  into  a  spiritual  organism,  a 
new  personality,  fashioned  after  the  image  of 
Christ.  Thus  there  is  a  gradual  unfolding  of 
the  Christ-life   until   the  perfect  counterpart 


Spiritual  Growth  97 

of  the  type  is  reached.    This  is  the  law  of 
spiritual  growth. 

II 

In  the  phenomena  of  growth  we  are  con- 
fronted primarily  with  three  things.  In  every 
organism  there  is  formative  matter,  formed 
matter  and  the  forming  principle  of  life.  Fol- 
lowing this  analogy  we  have  in  spiritual  growth 
the  old  nature,  the  new  creature,  and  the  im- 
planted Christ-life.  There  is  a  definite  dis- 
tinction, on  the  one  hand,  between  the  old 
nature  and  the  implanted  Christ-life,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  between  the  old  nature  and  the 
new  creature  which  is  the  product  of  spiritual 
growth.  The  old  man  is  the  basis  or,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  material  with  which  the  new 
life  operates ;  the  new  creature  is  the  product 
of  this  operation. 

It  would  be  contrary  to  imagine  that  the 
new  creature  could  be  formed  out  of  nothing. 
An  organic  being  is  one  that  derives  its  exist- 
ence from  a  previously  existing  organic  being 
and  which  grows  to  maturity  by  appropriating 
from  its  environment  the  material  out  of  which 
the  organism  is  built  up.  Life  merely  enters 
into  already  existing  matter,  assimilates  more 
of  the  same  sort  and  rebuilds  it.  In  the  proc- 
ess of  spirtual  growth  this  same  law  maintains. 
The  soul  of  man  is  the  already  existing  pro- 
toplasm out  of  which  the  spiritual  organism  is 


98  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

to  be  built.  The  Christ-life  when  it  is  clothed 
upon  and  becomes  a  living  personality  is  the 
old  man  made  new.  The  powers  of  the  soul 
are  not  changed  in  their  function  when  they 
are  built  into  the  new  creature,  but  only  in 
the  end  towards  which  their  operations  tend. 
There  is  not  a  function  with  which  man  is  en- 
dowed that  is  not  within  itself  good,  and  when 
properly  and  legitimately  exercised  produces 
conduct  that  is  righteous  and  brings  happiness 
and  pleasure.  The  trouble  with  the  natural 
man  is  not  that  his  functions  are  corrupt,  but 
that  the  life  using  these  functions  and  oper- 
ating through  them  is  the  wrong  type  and 
cannot,  therefore,  produce  the  right  kind  of 
character.  The  Christ-life,  the  heavenly  and 
eternal  type,  comes  into  the  life  of  man,  in- 
vests itself,  through  a  process  of  spiritual 
assimilation,  with  the  functions  and  powers 
of  the  soul  and  builds  them  into  the  new  crea- 
ture. 

If  the  soul  is  to  furnish  the  material  out  of 
which  the  new  creature  is  to  be  formed  then 
it  must  possess  two  things :  the  capacity  for 
life,  and  plasticity.  Capacity  for  life  is  evi- 
denced by  the  spiritual  nature  of  man.  He  is 
not  conceived  of  in  the  Scriptures  as  simply  a 
self-centred  being,  living  a  life  on  earth  with 
other  animals,  or,  at  best,  sharing  a  self-con- 
scious life  with  his  fellows.  He  is  represented 
as  a  spiritual  personality,  made  in  the  image  of 


Spiritual  Growth  99 

God,  and  in  the  very  constitution  of  his  being 
somewhat  akin  to  God.  Hence  we  find  man 
possessed  of  a  spirit  that  renders  him  pecul- 
iarly open  to  the  influence  of  the  divine  Spirit. 
The  soul  has  a  capacity  for  God.  Through  all 
the  ages  humanity  has  longed  for  God.  This 
longing  has  voiced  itself  in  the  religious  pro- 
clivities of  the  race.  In  every  land  and  in 
every  age  man  has  not  been  without  a  religion. 
The  soul  is  a  chamber  not  only  ready  to  receive 
the  new  life,  but  the  new  life  seems  to  be 
expected,  and,  till  it  comes,  is  missed.  In  man 
God  has  left  Himself  a  way  of  approach  and  a 
ground  for  moral  renovation. 

If  we  would  know  whether  the  soul  is  capa- 
ble of  being  appropriated  by  the  Christ-life  and 
builded  into  the  new  creature  we  will  have  to 
turn  to  psychology.  It  is  in  the  analysis  of  the 
various  phases  of  consciousness  that  we  are 
furnished  with  the  evidence  of  the  plasticity  of 
the  soul.  Modern  psychology  does  not  now 
classify  mental  phenomena  according  to  the 
different  "  faculties  "  from  which  they  were  sup- 
posed to  spring  ;  it  arranges  them  in  groups  ac- 
cording to  the  element  which  is  most  prominent 
in  each  conscious  state.  The  three  ultimate 
modes  of  consciousness  are  now  named  (accord- 
ing to  the  mental  element  which  predominates 
in  each)  thinking,  feeling,  and  willing.  And 
these  are  the  very  elements  with  which  the 
Christ-life    seeks   to  clothe  itself.     The  think- 


loo  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

iixg  element  of  consciousness  includes  all  per- 
ception and  memory,  all  forms  of  reasoning  and 
imagination.  It  is  the  power  by  which  men 
believe,  or  have  intuition  of  truth.  The  feeling 
element  of  consciousness  includes  all  emotions, 
such  as  joy,  and  sorrow,  hope  and  fear,  love 
and  hate.  The  willing  element  of  consciousness 
includes  all  impulses,  desires,  and  volitions.  It 
is  the  purposeful  quality  in  human  action  which 
lies  at  the  basis  of  moral  character. 

It  must  be  kept  in  mind,  however,  that  be- 
hind this  threefold  activity  of  thinking,  feeling 
and  willing  lies  the  unity  of  the  ego  or  self,  the 
subject  of  these  states  of  consciousness.  This 
self,  to  whom  belong  all  thoughts,  feelings,  and 
volitions,  we  call  the  soul.  The  soul  is  the  sub- 
ject of  life.  It  is  the  bearer  of  the  individual 
life  and  as  such  is  capacitated  for  appropriation 
by  a  higher  type  of  life.  Appealing  to  the 
Christian  consciousness,  which  should  be  made 
a  separate  branch  of  psychology,  we  find  that 
the  Christ-life  does  appropriate  the  elements 
of  the  soul  and  does  build  them  into  a  new 
creature,  the  Christian.  As  the  Spirit  of  God 
went  forth  in  creation,  as  the  principle  of  order 
and  life  in  the  new  world,  so  the  Holy  Spirit 
operates  directly  upon  the  soul  of  man  implant- 
ing within  him  a  vital  entity  which  is  capable 
of  picking  up  the  life  elements  of  the  soul  out 
of  the  chaos  of  sin  and  building  them  into  a 
new  creature,  a  new  type  of  manhood  that  is 


Spiritual  Growth  101 

Christlike  and  spiritual.  The  only  thing  we 
insist  upon  is  that  in  the  natural  man  these 
mental  and  moral  elements  which  form  the  basis 
for*  the  new  creature  are  spiritually  lifeless. 
However  active  the  intellectual,  emotional,  and 
volitional  elements  may  be,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  Christ-life,  they  are  dead.  That 
which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh. 

Ill 

The  old  life  furnishes  the  material  out  of 
which  the  new  creature  is  to  be  constructed. 
The  vital  agent  is  the  Christ-life  implanted  in 
regeneration.  The  type  to  be  attained  is  the 
Christly  character  as  that  character  is  revealed 
in  the  life  of  Jesus.  The  process  by  which  this 
result  is  accomplished  with  reference  to  the 
Christ-life  is  a  growth,  but  with  reference  to 
the  old  life  it  is  a  transformation.  It  is  evident 
that  the  Christ-life  was  made  to  grow,  not 
stop.  Or  in  the  words  of  Paul,  "  whom  He  did 
foreknow,  He  also  did  predestinate  to  be  con- 
formed to  the  image  of  His  Son."  No  one  for 
a  moment  doubts  that  this  conformation  is  a 
process  and  that  the  ci  image  of  His  Son  "  is  the 
moral  beauty  which  the  Son  displayed  as  the 
antitypical  Christian  character  while  here  among 
men.  "  Predestined  to  be  conformed  to  the 
image  of  His  Son  "  implies  that  somewhere  in 
the  revealed  will  of  the  Father  is  the  method 
by  which  this  purpose  is  to  be  realized.     It  is 


102  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

the  decree  of  God  that  the  Christ-life  shall 
clothe  itself  in  beauty.  If  there  is  not  some  law 
for  accomplishing  this  result,  then  one  of  the 
chief  gifts  to  the  world  has  been  forgotten. 
Paul  has  approached  the  nearest  to  the  state- 
ment of  the  law.  He  says :  "  We  all  with  un- 
veiled face  beholding  as  in  a  mirror  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  are  transformed  into  the  same  image 
from  glory  to  glory." 

The  first  step  in  this  process  is  the  attitude 
of  the  Christ-life  towards  the  spiritual  environ- 
ment. "  We  all  with  unveiled  face  beholding," 
says  the  apostle.  Here  is  indicated  a  definite 
posture  of  soul  towards  the  Lord  and  spiritual 
things.  In  the  physical  world  the  supply  of 
nutriment  for  the  functions  of  life  are  kept  up 
by  the  environment.  And  so  long  as  the  or- 
ganism continues  to  grow,  think,  and  act,  there 
is  a  constant,  simultaneous,  and  proportionate 
drain  upon  the  surroundings.  And  if  there  be 
nothing  within  reach  of  the  organism  to  supply 
this  wasted  energy,  life  and  activity  must  cease. 
What  is  true  of  the  physical  organism  is  also 
true  of  the  spiritual  organism.  The  Christ-life 
must  be  in  direct  contact  and  touch  with  the 
source  of  all  life.  Hence  the  uninterrupted 
vision.  While  the  Christ-life  appropriates  the 
life  elements  of  the  soul  and  builds  them  into 
the  spiritual  organism,  yet  this  is  its  field  of  op- 
eration and  not  its  source  of  life  and  strength. 
The   spiritual   life  does   not  get   its  strength 


Spiritual  Growth  103 

from  the  old  nature,  but  from  the  spiritual  en- 
vironment. 

When  Paul  speaks  of  the  "unveiled  face" 
he  is  referring  to  the  attitude  of  the  spiritual 
ego.  For,  mysterious  as  it  may  seem,  and  all 
life  processes  are  mysterious,  the  transforma- 
tion spoken  of  takes  place  in  the  individual  life 
which  is  at  all  times  a  unit.  Paul  is,  therefore, 
speaking  of  the  soul  as  dominated  by  the  Christ- 
life.  The  difference  between  the  "  veiled  "and 
the  "  unveiled  "  soul  is  the  difference  between 
the  natural  man  into  whose  life  the  Christ-life 
has  not  come  and  the  man  into  whose  soul  this 
new  life  has  been  planted.  There  was  never  a 
ray  of  starlight  in  the  Mammoth  Cave  of  Ken- 
tucky ;  only  the  red  glare  of  torches  ever  light 
its  walls.  So  with  the  unregenerated  soul.  It 
is  a  mammoth  cave,  all  underground,  all  un- 
lighted  save  by  the  torches  of  selfishness  and 
passion.  Such  a  soul  finds  nothing  in  the  Bible 
but  mystery,  nothing  in  the  Sabbath  but  drudg- 
ery. The  whole  scheme  of  religion  is  but  a 
chain  of  meaningless  forms  and  the  Gospel 
foolishness.  Such  a  soul  receives  none  of  the 
spiritual  things  brought  to  the  world  through 
these  forms,  and  receiving  them  not,  cannot  be 
transformed  by  them  into  the  character  of  the 
Christ.  On  the  other  hand  the  man  into  whose 
soul  the  Christ-life  has  come  is  clear-seeing  and 
keen-hearing ;  a  soul  of  quick  perceptions  and 
prompt  emotions ;  a  soul  to  which  the  Saviour 


104  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

stands  out  a  living  person,  and  for  which  heaven 
is  waiting  an  expected  home ;  a  soul  so  sensi- 
tive, that  sin  makes  it  writhe  with  agony, 
whilst  it  finds  holiness  a  true  delight,  and 
God's  conscious  favour  an  elevating  joy.  Such 
a  regnant  power  in  the  soul,  a  new  life  whose 
aspirations  are  heavenward,  is  bound  to  work  a 
transformation.  Heart  longings  will  be  created. 
These  are  not  vapourings  of  the  imagination, 
they  are  prophecies,  they  are  couriers,  fore- 
runners of  things  which  will  become  realities. 

The  second  step  in  this  process  is  that  the 
regenerated  soul  should  have  the  divine  type 
constantly  in  its  vision.  It  is  here  that  a  new 
element  enters.  This  element  is  the  conscious 
power  of  choice  with  which  man  is  endowed. 
In  all  animal  organisms  we  find  that  growth 
blindly  obeys  the  law  of  conformity  to  type. 
In  physical  development  we  not  only  follow 
the  type  involuntarily,  but  we  are  unconscious 
of  such  conformity.  In  the  higher  realms  of 
spiritual  growth  the  soul  might  have  been 
made  to  conform  to  the  divine  type  with  no 
more  knowledge  or  power  of  choice  than  the 
physical  organism  has,  but  then  we  should  not 
have  been  men.  Owing,  therefore,  to  the  pecul- 
iar characteristics  of  the  living  elements  which 
are  to  be  incorporated  into  the  spiritual  organ- 
ism an  additional  and  exceptional  provision  is 
essential.  The  first  demand  is  that  being  con- 
scious and  having  this  power  of  choice,  the 


Spiritual  Growth  105 

soul  should  have  an  adequate  knowledge  of 
what  it  is  to  choose.  Some  revelation  of  the 
type  is  therefore  necessary.  And  as  that  reve- 
lation can  only  come  through  the  type  itself  we 
must  look  for  it  there.  And  following  this, 
the  other  demand  is  that  the  type  revealed  for 
man's  conscious  consideration  should  be  the 
highest  conceivable  type. 

This  twofold  condition  is  set  forth  in  the 
language  of  the  formula  which  outlines  the 
law  of  growth:  "Beholding  as  in  a  mirror 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  we  are  changed  into 
the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  as  from 
the  Lord  the  Spirit."  The  soul  enlightened 
by  the  incoming  Christ-life  implanted  in  re- 
generation looks  upon,  contemplates,  beholds 
the  "glory  of  the  Lord."  Here  is  set  forth 
the  divine  type  which  is  to  be  the  model  of  the 
spiritual  life.  It  is  also  indicated  that  in  the 
process  of  "  beholding  "  the  soul  comes  to  have 
an  adequate  knowledge  of  this  type  and  be- 
comes conscious  of  the  fact  that  this  type  which 
it  beholds  is  the  supreme  ideal  of  manhood 
after  which  the  life  is  to  be  modelled.  This  is 
not  a  radiance  to  be  reflected ;  but  a  person  to 
be  contemplated.  That  person  is  Christ.  Not 
simply  Jesus,  the  Carpenter's  Son,  but  the  cru- 
cified and  risen  Saviour.  It  is  this  life  that 
constitutes  the  uplifting  power  of  the  Gospel. 
The  transforming  force  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven    is    the    crucified   and  risen    Saviour. 


io6  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

There  is  summed  up  in  Him  all  the  powers  of 
divine  grace,  all  the  forces  of  redemption,  all 
the  energies  working  for  world  uplift  and  soul 
transformation.  This  divine  Christ  is  the  type 
which  the  regenerated  soul  is  destined  to  realize. 

IV 

This  transformation  does  not  take  place  in 
the  soul  without  struggle.  It  would  be  strange 
indeed  if  it  did.  That  one  life  should  overcome 
another  life,  absorb  and  appropriate  its  essen- 
tial elements  and  build  them  into  its  own 
being,  and  do  this  without  meeting  with  resist- 
ance, would  be  different  from  anything  we  are 
acquainted  with  in  the  world  of  life  around  us. 
Struggle  for  existence  is  one  of  the  laws  of  life. 
Not  only  so,  but  there  are  resisting  forces  con- 
fronting every  species  of  life  in  nature,  and 
these  have  to  be  overcome  before  there  can  be 
growth ;  yea,  and  the  very  existence  of  the 
species  is  maintained  by  a  continuous  struggle 
and  warfare.  In  the  spiritual  world  we  find 
this  struggle  going  on.  "I  find  then  a  law," 
says  Paul,  "that  to  me  who  would  do  good 
evil  is  present.  For  I  delight  in  the  law  of 
God  after  the  inward  man ;  but  I  see  a  different 
law  in  my  members,  warring  against  the  law 
of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into  captivity 
under  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  members  " 
(Rom.  vii.  21-31). 

In  regeneration  a  new  life  is  implanted,  but 


Spiritual  Growth  107 

the  old  life  is  not  purified.  The  carnal  nature 
remains.  This  nature  is  not  subject  of  the  law 
of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be,  hence  it  is  op- 
posed to  the  Christ-life.  In  fact  the  two  lives 
belong  to  different  kingdoms.  Paul  uses  two 
words  to  designate  them.  The  flesh-life  he 
designates  by  the  Greek  word  "  Sarx,"  which 
can  only  signify  an  earthly  organism  consisting 
of  body  and  soul,  and  cannot  denote  either  an 
earthly  existence  that  is  not  living  or  a  living 
organism  that  is  not  earthly.  The  Christ-life 
implanted  in  regeneration,  the  life  that  forms 
the  new  creature,  he  calls  "  Pneuma,"  which  sig- 
nifies the  divine  life  belonging  to  God  and  com- 
municated in  Christ  to  man,  by  virtue  of  which 
communication  man  is  regenerated.  These  two 
living  entities  are  antagonistic  forces.  This  is 
evident  from  the  language  of  Paul :  "  For  the 
flesh  lusteth  against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit 
against  the  flesh ;  for  these  are  contrary  the 
one  to  the  other"  (Gal.  v.  17). 

The  difference  between  these  two  antagonis- 
tic forces  is  as  follows :  the  carnal  life  is  received 
from  Adam  ;  the  spiritual  life  from  Christ. 
The  one  we  get  in  natural  birth ;  the  other  in 
spiritual  birth.  The  carnal  nature  is  the  vehicle 
of  sin  ;  the  spiritual  nature  is  the  vehicle  of 
righteousness.  The  world  is  the  environment 
of  the  carnal ;  the  kingdom  of  God  and  spiritual 
things  the  environment  of  the  spiritual.  Satan 
reigns  through  the  carnal  ;  Christ  reigns  through 


i  o8  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

the  spiritual.  The  problem  of  Christianity — 
the  supreme  struggle  of  the  soul — is  between 
these  two  natures :  the  Christ-life  struggling 
to  overcome  the  Adamic-life  and  to  subject  it 
to  the  divine  will.  Through  the  process  of 
spiritual  growth  the  carnal  life  is  assimilated 
by  the  new  life  and  builded  into  the  Chris- 
tian personality.  By  this  wonderful  change 
wrought  in  the  soul  the  regenerated  man  be- 
comes like  Christ  and  subject  to  the  will  of  God. 
This  conflict,  while  it  is  one  of  the  concomi- 
tants of  spiritual  growth,  is  not^  an  essential 
element  in  the  process  of  growth.  There  are 
two  fundamental  characteristics  of  all  growth : 
one  is  spontaneousness  and  the  other  is  mysteri- 
ousness.  No  one  can  tell  just  how  the  flower 
grows.  It  is  from  the  tiny  bulb  pushing  up  its 
stem  and  leaf,  all  the  time  at  war  with  the  op- 
posing forces  of  gravity,  until  at  last  the  flower 
is  shaped  by  invisible  fingers.  The  growing 
process  was  all  the  time  a  separate  thing  from 
the  warring  process.  Turn  to  the  soul  and 
follow  out  the  analogy.  In  regeneration  the 
Christ-life  is  implanted  in  the  soul.  It  is  at 
first  a  tiny  thing,  "  a  babe  in  Christ."  But  it 
begins  slowly  to  rise,  pushing  up  its  delicate 
virtues  in  the  teeth  of  sin,  shaping  itself  myste- 
riously into  the  image  of  Christ,  and  all  the  time 
doing  this  in  the  face  of  the  opposition  of  the 
world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil.  Remember,  too, 
that  this  process  is  taking  place  in  the  conscious 


Spiritual  Growth  109 

life  of  an  individual  whose  nature  is  not  subject 
to  the  law  of  God  neither  indeed  can  be.  It 
will  then  be  apparent  that  as  this  new  spiritual 
personality  is  formed  the  old  nature,  which  is 
out  of  harmony  with  it,  will  be  arrayed  in  op- 
position to  it.  A  conflict  is  bound  to  follow. 
But  this  conflict  is  one  thing,  and  the  growth 
of  the  new  life  is  another  thing.  Spiritual 
growth  is  spontaneous,  mysterious,  beautiful, 
and  there  would  be  no  conflict  in  the  soul  if  it 
were  not  for  the  fact  that  the  Adamic-life  is 
at  war  with  the  Christ-life. 

V 

This  growth  is  not  augmented  either  by 
taking  thought.  Spiritual  character  is  not  the 
product  of  anxious  work,  self-denial,  and  con- 
scious struggle.  It  is  not  denied  that  by  hard 
work  and  self-restraint  a  man  may  attain  to  a 
very  high  character.  But  what  is  denied  is 
that  this  is  growth,  and  that  this  process  is 
Christianity.  The  conscious  struggle  may  give 
strength  to  the  will,  but  every  strong  will  is 
not  a  Christian  will.  Conscious  efforts  after 
goodness  are  generally  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  what  is  conceived  of  as  being  the 
best  for  the  self,  and  in  the  last  analysis  are 
resolvable  into  simply  a  regulative  programme 
for  the  old  life.  But  regulation  is  not  growth. 
Regulation  is  an  external  process  which  forces 
the  will  to  observe  certain  standards  without 


1 1  o  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

any  thought  of  changing  the  nature  of  the  life  ; 
growth,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  unfolding  of 
a  specific  type  of  life  which  brings  with  it  a 
changed  nature,  a  changed  personality.  All 
one  can  do  is  to  put  himself  in  the  right  relation 
with  the  spiritual  environment  and  leave  the 
matter  of  growth  to  the  mysterious  inward 
principle. 

It  is  to  be  kept  in  mind,  however,  that  while 
the  processes  of  growth  are  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  individual  effort,  yet  the  vital  powers 
which  make  growth  possible  are  inherent  in 
the  regenerated  soul.  It  is  the  same  law  govern- 
ing the  phenomena  of  growth  in  nature.  There 
the  branch  ascends,  and  the  bud  bursts,  and  the 
fruit  reddens  under  the  cooperation  of  influ- 
ences from  without,  but  the  inherent  life 
within  the  plant  appropriates  these  external  ele- 
ments and  through  this  process  of  appropriation 
unfolds  and  comes  to  maturity.  If  it  were  not 
for  this  power  of  appropriation,  by  which  the 
plant  takes  up  the  carbon  and  nitrogen  which 
it  finds  within  its  reach,  there  would  be  no 
growth,  whatever  the  external  conditions  might 
be.  So  with  soul  development.  The  elements 
which  enter  into  and  make  up  the  body  of 
character  are  external,  but  these  elements  must 
be  appropriated  by  the  individual  soul.  No  one 
by  taking  thought  can  add  to  his  stature,  but 
the  growing  youth,  by  obeying  the  laws  of 
nature,  by  taking  the  proper  exercise  and  eating 


Spiritual  Growth  1 1 1 

the  right  kind  of  food,  can  give  the  inherent 
powers  of  his  being  a  chance  and  they  will  add 
to  his  stature  and  to  his  strength  and  to  his 
health — he  will  come  to  the  full  stature  of 
splendid  manhood.  So  let  us  not  get  the  im- 
pression that  by  some  mystic,  mysterious  proc- 
ess of  the  Spirit  we  are  changed  into  the 
character  and  likeness  of  Christ,  and  that  apart 
from  anything  that  we  can  do.  Such  is  not  the 
method  of  this  change  as  Paul  understood  it. 
It  is  a  process  that  obeys  a  general  and  funda- 
mental law.  As  the  body  has  within  it  the 
powers  that  appropriate  the  elements  of  growth, 
so  has  the  regenerated  soul  within  it  the  powers 
that  appropriate  the  elements  of  character.  As 
the  body  obeying  the  law  of  its  being  eats  and 
grows,  so  the  soul  obeying  the  laws  of  its  being 
assimilates  and  grows.  The  food  for  the  soul 
is  the  Gospel.  It  is  here  that  we  find  the 
eternal  verities  which  furnish  the  elements 
necessary  to  character.  So  it  is  a  simple  process 
of  giving  the  soul  that  which  will  produce 
character. 

VI 

In  this  transformation  we  are  changed  into 
the  image  of  Christ.  It  could  not  be  otherwise. 
The  regenerated  soul  is  created  anew  in  His 
image.  It  is  made  to  partake  of  His  nature. 
It  has  within  it  the  germ  of  the  Christ-life,  and 
when  it  comes  to  maturity  of  character  it  can 


112  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

be  nothing  else  except  like  Him.  It  is  true  that 
we  do  not  realize  the  full  glory  in  this  life,  but  that 
is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  through  faith 
claim  the  full  consummation.  Christ  is  on  His 
throne  and  His  people  are  exalted  and  victori- 
ous in  Him.  Their  oneness  with  Him  is  the 
pledge  of  their  glorification.  "  It  doth  not  yet 
appear  what  we  shall  be,"  says  John,  "  but  we 
know  we  shall  be  like  Him  when  He  shall 
appear,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is." 

Such  is  the  method  and  such  is  the  issue  in 
spiritual  growth.  All  is  divine  in  its  origin  and 
secret  in  its  processes.  In  eternal  compassion 
the  sovereign  and  renewing  Spirit  goes  forth  in 
redemption,  as  He  went  forth  in  creation,  to 
call  chaos  into  cosmos.  Under  His  divine  super- 
vision the  work  of  life-building  goes  on.  All 
in  it  may  not  be  understood,  but  the  soul  which 
has  joyfully  surrendered  to  the  all-trusted 
Master  only  desires  to  know  what  is  essential  to 
its  progress.  Fuller  understanding  comes  with 
the  unfolding  life.  Trust  is  always  first.  Thus 
the  Christian  moves  along  the  path  of  an 
ever  brightening  transformation ;  at  once  open- 
eyed,  and  in  the  dark ;  seeing  the  Lord,  and  so 
with  a  pure  instinct  gravitating  to  His  will, 
yet  content  to  let  the  mists  of  the  unknown 
hang  always  over  the  next  step  but  one. 


VI 

THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST  THE  MISSION 
IMPERATIVE 

PRESIDENT  A.  H.  STRONG  in  a 
masterly  address  on  "The  Cross  of 
Christ,"  delivered  before  the  General 
Baptist  Convention  of  North  America  in  1911, 
after  he  had  declared  that  "the  Cross  has  meant 
an  eternally  judging,  suffering  and  saving  Christ ; 
and  a  continually  judging,  suffering  and  saving 
Church,"  adds  that  "  the  recognition  of  this 
supreme  sacrificial  event  is  essential  to  the  ex- 
istence of  a  truly  missionary  church.  The 
greatest  need  of  the  hour,"  continues  this  master 
in  his  exposition  of  the  meaning  of  the  Cross, 
"  is  a  fresh  and  forcible  expression  of  the 
sacrificial  spirit  of  Christ  by  the  Church,  His 
spiritual  body  on  earth.  As  Christ's  sacrificial 
offering  for  man's  redemption  was  the  crowning 
characteristic  of  His  earthly  ministry,  in  like 
manner  must  the  Church,  by  its  sacrificial 
service  for  the  world's  salvation,  justify  its 
claim  to  be  the  true  Church  of  Christ.  Its  best 
talent  should  be  put  at  the  disposal  of  Him  who 
emptied  Himself  of  honour  and  became  obedient 
to  the  death  of  the  Cross.  This  sacrificial  spirit 
among  business  men  should  express  itself  in 
large  offerings    to  Him  who,  for   our  sakes, 

llZ 


1 14  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

became  poor  that  we  through  His  poverty 
might  become  rich.  Let  this  central  truth  of 
the  Gospel  get  firm  hold  upon  the  men  to  whom 
God  has  given  worldly  treasure,  and  then,  under 
the  constraining  love  of  Christ,  millions  will  be 
forthcoming  for  all  our  great  missionary  enter- 
prises, and  the  Church  herself  will  attain  to  a 
position  of  moral  dignity  and  power  unpar- 
allelled  in  her  history." 

This  profound  burst  of  eloquence  Dr.  Strong- 
calls  his  confession  of  faith.  And  well  may  he 
so  call  it.  It  should  be  the  confession  of  faitli 
of  every  Christian  and  of  every  Church.  The 
heart  of  the  Gospel  is  the  Cross.  From  the 
Cross  is  sobbed  out  heaven's  message  of  life  and 
heaven's  imperative  to  service. 

The  divine  imperative  which  is  to  hurl  the 
forces  of  Jesus  across  mountains  and  plains  and 
stormy  seas  until  the  "  every  creature  "  in  the 
Great  Commission  has  been  reached  with  the 
message  of  love  is  centred  in  the  Cross  of 
Christ.  Did  you  ever  stand  with  Him  in  your 
imagination  on  that  mountain  top  appointed 
in  Galilee  and  hear  Him  as  He  delivered  to  His 
apostles  the  marching  orders  for  His  people  for 
all  the  years  ?  Listen  as  He  speaks.  "  Go  ye 
therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations, 
baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father  and 
of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  teaching 
them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have 
commanded  you  :  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  all  the 


Cross  of  Christ  the  Mission  Imperative    1 1 5 

days  even  unto  the  consummation  of  the  age." 
Behind  that  triumphant  and  imperial  command 
is  Calvary.  If  there  had  been  no  Cross  of 
suffering  there  could  have  been  no  command  of 
triumph.  The  "all  power"  given  is  on  the 
other  side  of  the  all  surrender  made.  Jesus  here 
asserts  that  He  as  "  Son  of  Man  "  has  received 
from  the  Father  supreme  authority  in  heaven 
and  in  earth,  over  the  whole  kingdom  of  God  in 
its  fullest  extent.  This  is  not  given  to  Him  as 
Son  of  God ;  for,  as  God,  naught  can  be  added 
to  Him  or  taken  from  Him ;  it  is  a  power  which 
He  has  merited  by  His  incarnation,  death  and 
passion.  As  the  purchase  of  His  sacrifice  all 
authority  in  heaven  as  priest  with  God  is  His — 
all  authority  on  earth  as  King  of  men  is  His. 


Did  you  ever  stop  to  ask  yourself  this 
question:  What  is  it  that  Jesus  demands  of 
His  followers?  Have  you  ever  thought 
seriously,  thought  until  you  have  arrived  at  a 
definite  conclusion  concerning  the  superlative 
duty  ?  Such  a  consideration  might  give  you  a 
new  vision.  The  Christian  religion  takes  higher 
ground  in  respect  to  human  duty  than  any  pre- 
tended message  from  heaven  ever  dared  to  as- 
sume ;  and  it  makes  claims,  which,  for  boldness 
and  authority,  stand  entirely  without  parallel 
The  imperial  demand  is  that  all  who  come  into 
the  experience  of  the  heavenly  life  shall  give 


1 16  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

themselves  to  Christ  in  the  work  of  establishing 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  throughout  all  the  world. 
Christ  never  thought  of  His  kingdom  as  being 
anything  less  than  universal  and  world-wide. 
His  final  command  to  His  disciples  was :  "  Go 
ye  into  all  the  world  and  disciple  the  nations." 
His  parting  instruction  was :  "  Not  to  depart 
from  Jerusalem,  but  to  wait  for  the  promise  of 
the  Father.  But  ye  shall  receive  power,  the 
Holy  Spirit  coining  upon  you  :  then  shall  ye  be 
My  witnesses  both  in  Jerusalem  and  in  all  Judea 
and  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth."  The  ultimate  end  of  the  saving 
powers  of  the  Gospel  is  the  "  every  creature  " 
of  the  Great  Commission.  The  final  consum- 
mation of  the  redemptive  forces  in  the  king- 
dom of  grace  is  the  "  all  creation  "  in  the  com- 
mand of  the  heavenly  King.  You  cannot 
divorce  the  kingdom  of  heaven  from  the 
geography  of  the  world.  It  was  so  in  the  be- 
ginning, it  is  so  now.  The  map  of  America 
was  in  the  divine  conception  concerning  the 
kingdom,  so  Jalso  was  the  map  of  China  and 
India.  The  Son  of  God  could  think  only  in 
terms  that  were  world-wide.  To  Him  the  earth 
was  a  unit.  There  were  no  seas,  no  mountain 
ranges,  no  desert  plains.  He  saw  no  national 
boundary  lines,  and  knew  no  distinctions  of 
race  or  conditions  among  the  sons  of  men. 
Finite  creatures  think  in  terms  of  continents, 
sections,  division  of  the  earth ;  they  reach  the 


Cross  of  Christ  the  Mission  Imperative    1 1 7 

limit  of  their  comprehension  when  they  have 
included  in  their  thought  a  few  of  the  races  of 
men,  but  with  the  Son  of  God  nothing  short  of 
a  world  including  all  the  races  of  the  family  of 
man  could  satisfy  His  conception  of  a  mission 
worthy  of  His  love. 

The  kingdom  of  Christ  must  include  there- 
fore Tartar  and  Tagal  as  well  as  Caucasian.  It 
can  be  nothing  less  than  the  reign  of  Christ  in 
the  collective  body  of  men  in  the  material,  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  features  of  the  civiliza- 
tion and  social  life  of  the  whole  world.  This 
includes  the  environments  of  men,  for  the  social 
well  being  of  men  must  always  include  the  in- 
creased capacity  and  restfulness  occasioned  by 
the  ministry  of  their  surroundings  to  their  mu- 
tual uplift  and  progress.  So  long  as  conditions 
in  Russia  exist  which  make  persecution  possi- 
ble ;  so  long  as  the  people  in  China  are  bound 
down  by  the  traditions  of  the  past ;  so  long  as 
political  corruption  maintains  in  Europe  and 
America ;  just  so  long  will  the  world  be  retarded 
in  its  social  progress  and  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  delayed.  To  these  as  to  all  retarding 
influences  there  is  but  one  cure.  That  cure  is 
found  in  the  Cross  of  Christ.  The  world's  so- 
cial hurt  will  be  healed  only  by  the  coming  of 
the  universal  kingdom  of  peace;  only  by  the 
enthronement  of  Christ  as  King  ;  and  this  can 
never  take  place  until  the  world  has  bowed  at 
the  foot  of  His  Cross. 


1 1 8  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

II 

The  time  has  come  and  now  is  when  every 
citizen  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  must  feel  that 
this  kingdom — its  enlargement  and  glory— is 
the  grandest  interest  in  the  universe.  The 
movement  for  the  social  betterment  of  the  world, 
for  the  moral  and  spiritual  uplift  of  humanity 
is  not  simply  a  desirable  thing  for  Christians  to 
carry  forward ;  but  it  is  the  chief  and  most  im- 
portant undertaking  under  heaven.  An  active 
interest  in  the  promotion  of  Christ's  kingdom 
is  a  mark  of  true  discipleship.  A  man's  Chris- 
tian life  is  not  what  it  ought  to  be  if  the  out- 
reach of  his  sympathies  is  limited  to  anything 
less  than  all  mankind. 

Behind  this  the  largest  movement  ever  known 
in  the  history  of  humanity  there  is  a  supreme 
reason.  Behind  this  superlative  call  to  duty 
there  is  a  triumphant,  a  regnant,  and  an  eternal 
argument.  Christ  never  makes  a  demand  upon 
the  soul  that  He  hasn't  a  reason  for,  a  reason 
sufficiently  divine  and  exalted  to  inspire  the 
heart  of  His  love.  That  reason  is  set  forth  by 
the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles :  "  Know  ye 
not  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that 
though  He  was  rich  yet  for  our  sakes  He  be- 
came poor  that  ye  through  His  poverty  might 
become  rich."  Here  the  humiliation  of  Jesus 
Christ  which  culminated  on  the  Cross  is  set 
forth  under  the  figure  of  poverty  and  on  this 
supreme  stoop  of  His  humiliation  there  is  based 


Cross  of  Christ  the  Mission  Imperative    1 19 

an  argument  and  an  appeal.  In  Komans  Paul 
begins  the  practical  part  of  the  epistle  with  an 
appeal  based  upon  the  sacrificial  work  of  Jesus. 
"  I  beseech  you  therefore  brethren  by  the  mer- 
cies of  God  that  you  present  your  bodies  a  liv- 
ing sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God  which 
is  your  reasonable  service."  The  sacrifice  of 
the  Gross  for  us  stands  behind  the  appeal  of 
God  to  us.  Because  Christ  came  and  died  for 
the  world  we  are  to  go  to  the  world  with  the 
message  of  life. 

Then  let  us  in  our  efforts  to  get  hold  of  the 
supreme  imperative  go  back  to  the  source  of 
authority  and  power.  We  go  to-day  into  all 
the  world  armed  with  an  argument  which  jus- 
tifies the  supreme  sacrifice,  an  argument  that 
justifies  the  proclamation  which  we  make  to  the 
world,  which  proclamation  is  that  "  there  is  life 
for  a  look  at  the  crucified  one."  Wherever  a 
preacher  or  a  missionary  goes — he  may  be  a 
weak  man  or  an  unlearned  man — but  he  goes 
armed  with  the  argument  of  the  Cross  and  by 
this  sign  he  shall  conquer.  Christ  "  lifted  up  " 
will  be  an  argument  to  do  what  no  reasoning, 
no  philosophy  can  do — an  argument  high  as 
heaven,  and  deep  as  hell,  and  against  which 
no  sophistry  of  earth,  no  sublety  of  the  devil 

can  avail. 

Ill 

But  Christianity  is  more  than  an  argument ; 
it    is  a  vital  power.     It  is  of  little  avail  to 


1 20  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

preach  Christ  crucified  if  the  Cross  were  only 
an  argument.  It  is  to  show  utter  ignorance 
of  human  nature  to  suppose  that  any  external 
demonstration  will  disenchant  men  of  the 
Avorld.  The  argument  may  be  overwhelming, 
but  what  is  this  to  one  who  will  not  weigh  the 
evidence  ?  I  speak  now  of  professed  Christians 
as  well  as  unbelievers.  How  are  we  going  to 
stir  these  out  of  their  apathy  ?  What  can  we 
bring  to  bear  on  the  host  of  indifferent  ones  in 
order  to  enlist  them  in  this  great  work  ?  How 
are  we  going  to  breed  a  passion  for  souls? 
The  instrumentality  to  accomplish  this  work  is 
the  Cross ;  the  power  that  alone  can  awaken 
and  arouse  men  from  this  fatal  unconcern  and 
callousness  is  the  Christ  lifted  up. 

Christianity  should  be  colour,  Christianity 
should  be  romance,  Christianity  should  be 
strife,  Christianity  should  be  glory,  Christian- 
ity should  be  sacrifice.  Where  shall  we  get 
these  things  ?  What  is  there  in  a  bloodless 
and  cross-less  religion  to  evoke  in  man  that 
higher  passion  which  alone  reveals  him  to 
himself,  tragic  and  momentous  and  austere? 
Up  in  heaven  there  is  a  throne  set.  Below  it, 
here  on  earth,  amid  the  toil  and  moil,  divine 
energies  pass  hither  and  thither;  but  in  the 
deepest  heart  of  it  all  there  is  the  spirit  of  the 
Lamb  as  it  has  been  slain  working  to  transform 
and  to  conquer.  This  is  the  vision  by  the  light 
of  which  we  are  flung  out  of  the  drab  monot- 


Cross  of  Christ  the  Mission  Imperative    1 2 1 

ony  into  the  arena  of  that  age-long  struggle 
for  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Ihis  is  the  Christian's  life  romance.  How 
can  ve  believe  it,  you  and  I  ?  How  can  we 
come  to  see  it  ?  How  can  we  come  to  feel  it  ? 
How  can  these  kingdom  forces  that  are  throb- 
bing in  the  world  and  working  to  the  world's 
redemption  throb  in  our  own  souls  ?  How  can 
we  come  into  a  mission  experience  that  will 
forever  change  the  religious  horizon  for  us, 
that  will  make  us  over  again  ?  There  is  but 
one  way.  It  is  a  vision  of  the  Cross  and  its 
meaning.  You  and  I  must  have  the  Cross 
erected  in  our  souls ;  then  and  not  till  then  can 
we  do  as  Jesus  did,  take  the  facts  as  they  are, 
the  actual  facts  of  the  world  as  it  is  to-day  and 
bring  God  into  them.  We  can  then  identify 
ourselves,  heart  and  soul,  with  the  sorrows  and 
labours  of  men,  with  the  weeping  of  women, 
with  the  pain  of  little  children.  Inside  all  the 
famines  and  plagues,  the  wrongs  and  the  curses 
of  earth  we  can  then  creep,  and,  having  come, 
make  them  all  our  own.  This  is  the  method 
of  the  Cross.  This  is  what  Jesus  did  in  coming 
to  the  Cross.  The  bitterness  of  the  world 
passed  over  Him,  its  agony  shook  His  soul ; 
and  therefore  in  Him  God's  royal  purpose  was 
declared  and  revealed ;  and  that  bitterness  and 
that  agony  are  about  us  still.  Look  at  the 
world  to-day,  look  at  its  sufferings,  its  sorrows, 
its  poverty,  its  nakedness,  its  pain.     We  must 


122  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

go  closer  down  to  it.  We  must  fling  into  it 
our  reason,  our  imagination,  our  conscience,  so 
that  we  can  actually  see  what  the  unhappy  see, 
and  feel  what  the  wronged  feel.  This  is  the 
method  of  the  Cross.  This  can  happen  in  our 
lives  only  when  the  Cross  is  erected  in  our 
souls.  And  this  is  the  dynamic  of  missions. 
We  claim  to  be  one  with  the  Christ  of  God, 
but  that  Lamb  only  lives  and  reigns  and  opens 
the  seals  of  the  tomb  of  our  souls  because  He  is 
one  with  us  and  in  us  through  the  Cross.  He 
lives  for  the  world  because  He  died  on  the 
Cross  for  the  world;  He  lives  in  the  world 
because  He  is  one  with  the  lives  of  those  who 
have  through  the  Cross  died  to  the  world  in 
Him. 

Such  a  death  will  give  birth  to  a  heart- 
wrenching  passion  for  sinners.  Have  you  ever 
felt  the  immediate  tug  of  sinning  humanity's 
need  ?  As  you  have  looked  upon  the  broken 
and  ruined  splendour  of  the  soul ;  as  you  have 
contemplated  the  wreck  of  human  happiness 
and  the  perversion  of  human  society  all  because 
of  sin  ;  as  you  have  contemplated  all  this  have 
you  put  the  question  to  yourself,  Do  I  really 
care  ?  Have  you  ever  felt  the  sense  of  brother- 
hood which  sets  you  to  bothering  about  your 
brother?  The  true  Saviour-man  cares;  the 
man  who  has  erected  the  Cross  in  his  life  cares  ; 
not  theoretically,  not  distantly,  not  profession- 
ally, but  actually,  vitally,  through  the  immedi- 


Cross  of  Christ  the  Mission  Imperative    1 23 

ate  impact  of  need  and  with  an  immediate 
outrnsh  of  love.     This  is  the  only  basis  for  a 
world  programme.     A  mission  movement  that 
is  not  inspired  by  love— love  to  Christ  and 
one's  fellows— will  be  ephemeral ;  it  will  come 
and  go  with  the  changing  times  and  tides  of 
men,  with  the  rise  and  fall  of  human  values. 
But  a  mission  interest  built  upon  love  will 
wane  not,  through  bright  and  cloudy  weather, 
through  the  stress  and  storm  of  financial  flurry, 
through  the  shocks  of  the  changing  times  and 
tides  of  men,  it  will  still  remain.     Love  is  eter- 
nal.    It  is  optimistic.    It  is  insistent.     It  does 
not  have  to  resort  to  the  multiplication  table  to 
calculate  its  responses.     The  man  who  cares  and 
cares  because  he  loves,  is  not  careful  to  count 
noses  in  estimating  how  much  he  cares.     The 
heart  of  love  does  not  have  to  be  pried  open 
with  the  leverage  of  multitudes.     A  soul  yearn- 
ing is  not  fed  on  columns  of  figures.    Christ  did 
not  stop  to  figure  up  the  number  of  men  in  the 
world  to  be  saved ;  He  came  to  save  men  not 
because  there  were  so  many ;  but  because  they 
were  so  dear.    And  the  only  inspiration  to  love ; 
the  only  dynamic  that  drives  out  our  selfishness 
and  causes  us  to  bother  about  our  brother  is 
the  Cross  of  Christ. 

One  cannot  begin  to  open  up  the  fullness  of 
this  subject.  The  Cross !  What  overwhelming 
truths  flash  out  from  it  as  from  a  blazing  focal, 
radiating  central  point !     What  exhibition  does 


1 24  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

it  give  of  the  value  of  a  soul !  What  an  ad- 
monition of  the  miseries  of  the  damned !  De- 
vouring flames,  chains  of  darkness,  howlings 
of  despair — oh,  how  the  Cross,  where  Jesus 
bleeds,  gives  us  a  most  terrific  idea  of  hell! 
The  Cross !  What  an  awful  lustre  does  it  pour 
upon  the  justice,  the  severity  and  the  holiness 
of  God!  Above  all,  the  love  of  God — how 
dazzling,  with  what  surpassing  brightness,  does 
not  that  shine  here — sending  a  heavenly  efful- 
gence over  all  this  world  of  darkness  even 
down  to  the  gates  of  hell !  Can  this  Cross  be 
viewed  with  indifference  ?  Is  it  strange  that 
the  Cross  has  power  to  rouse  and  stir  the  heart  ? 
Is  not  this  the  wonder,  not  that  men  are  shaken, 
but  that  all  are  not  melted  and  mastered  by 
the  very  first  proclamation  of  a  crucified  Re- 
deemer ;  and  that  whenever  and  wherever  that 
truth  is  proclaimed,  the  scenes  of  Pentecost  are 
not  renewed?  When  one  looks  at  the  Cross, 
how  is  it  possible  not  to  love  God?  not  to 
call  with  the  Psalmist  upon  heaven  and  earth, 
upon  our  souls  and  all  within  us,  to  love  and 
praise  the  Lord  ?  And  with  Andrew  Fuller  to 
find  our  hearts  forever  breaking  out  into  un- 
known  strains  of  love,  and  our  lips — go  where 
we  will — still  singing : 

"Oh,  for  this  love  let  rocks  and  hills, 
Their  lasting  silence  break, 
And  all  harmonious  human  tongues 
The  Saviour's  praises  speak." 


Cross  of  Christ  the  Mission  Imperative   1 25 

IV 

The  Cross  stands  as  the  symbol  of  sacrifice. 
On  it  Jesus  gave  Himself  for  the  world,  and 
His  appeal  to  us  for  service  comes  from  the 
mount  of  His  own  sacrifice.  It  can  have  no 
other  meaning  to  us  than  that  it  had  for  Him. 
Here  is  symbolized  the  supreme  gift  which 
every  Christian  is  called  upon  to  make,  the 
giving  of  himself  for  the  coming  of  the  king- 
dom of  God  in  the  world. 

Let  us  not  be  guilty  of  criminal  perversion  of 
God's  word  by  inferring  that  because  He  has 
promised  a  specific  reign  of  Christ  in  all  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  that  He  will  certainly  bring 
it  to  pass,  and  therefore  we  may  repose  in  a 
state  of  entire  inaction  and  unconcern.  There 
is  no  piety  in  that  confidence  which  neglects 
prayer,  or  which  praying  does  not  add  to  prayer 
diligent  effort  to  attain  that  for  which  it  prays. 
God's  kingdom  is  a  kingdom  of  means.  He 
never  did,  and  probably  never  will,  convey  the 
light  of  the  Gospel  to  any  people  by  direct 
miracle.  "  Faith  cometh  by  hearing  and  hear- 
ing by  the  Word  of  God,"  says  the  apostle; 
and  as  if  to  stir  his  hearers  with  a  holy  zeal  in 
the  work  of  preaching  the  Gospel,  he  continues, 
,ji  but  how  can  they  hear  without  a  preacher, 
and  how  can  they  preach  except  they  be  sent  ?  " 
The  world-wide  work  of  kingdom  building  has 
been  commissioned  to  men. 

The  work  which  we  are  called  upon  to  ac- 


1 26  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

complish  is  the  moral  renovation  of  this  entire 
world.  Not  a  corner  of  it  is  to  be  left  unre- 
claimed. Over  all  of  it  Christ  is  to  reign.  To 
those  who  would  go  to  foreign  fields  I  would 
say  go ;  go  as  fast  as  winged  ships  can  carry 
you,  but  do  not  go  because  American  sin  is  not 
picturesque  enough.  Do  not  go  because  you 
think  it  is  only  by  going  that  you  can  work  for 
the  bringing  in  of  the  kingdom.  Go  only  be- 
cause the  leader  has  commanded  you  to  take 
your  position  at  the  post  of  duty  in  the  foreign 
field.  The  army  of  King  Jesus  is  world-wide, 
the  campaign  of  conquest  is  universal,  and  every 
point  of  contact  with  the  forces  of  evil  is  the 
front  of  battle  whether  the  lines  be  drawn  in 
the  home  field  or  on  the  foreign  land. 

To  you  who  are  commissioned  to  stay  and 
fight  in  the  ranks  at  home  let  me  give  you  this 
word  of  encouragement.  The  battle  cannot  be 
waged  successfully  abroad  unless  the  enemy  be 
kept  in  check  at  home.  The  greatest  problem 
of  foreign  missions  to-day  is  a  home  problem. 
Treasuries  of  benevolence  are  being  lavished  in 
vain,  and  the  lives  of  men  spent  for  naught, 
because,  as  soon  as  the  faithful  missionary 
begins  to  succeed  in  turning  the  miserable 
heathen  from  his  idols  and  saving  him  from  his 
pollution,  modern  commerce,  with  its  heart 
lusting  for  gold,  and  fearful  of  losing  its  prey, 
rushes  in,  and  beats  to  the  earth  the  work  of 
heavenly  benevolence,  and  knocks  in  the  head 


Cross  of  Christ  the  Mission  Imperative    1 27 

the  new-born  hopes  of  regenerated  tribes. 
With  every  vessel  bearing  a  missionary  there 
goes  a  cargo  of  rum,  and  a  troop  of  moral 
perverts  to  debauch  the  heathen.  Can  we  ex- 
tend over  all  the  earth  the  victories  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace  while  we  are  bearing  in  one 
hand  the  emblems  of  salvation,  and  in  the  other 
hand  the  price  of  blood  ?  Can  we  break  the 
chains  of  spiritual  thraldom  abroad  while  we 
rivet  the  fetters  of  moral  bondage  at  home  ? 
Can  we  teach  the  races  of  the  earth  the  law  of 
universal  love,  while  we  are  trampling  on  hu- 
man rights,  treading  out  the  life  from  the  im- 
mortal mind  and  crushing,  with  iron  heel,  the 
image  of  God  in  man  in  our  home  land  ?  So 
long  as  the  so-called  Christian  nations  are  filled 
with  graft  and  greed;  so  long  as  the  most 
dreadful  corruptions  of  morals  and  the  most 
dismal  defiance  of  every  sound  principle  come 
from  Europe  and  America ;  just  so  long  will  the 
far-flung  battle  lines  of  King  Jesus  move  for- 
ward uncertainly  and  the  kingdom  of  peace  be 
retarded  in  its  ccming. 

V 

And  how  shall  this  be  changed  ?  How  shall 
our  home  land  as  well  as  the  lands  across  the 
seas  be  lifted  up  and  redeemed  ?  There  is  but 
one  way,  it  is  the  Cross  of  Christ.  The  Cross 
of  Christ  is  the  only  remedy  for  a  lost  world. 
We  know   that   where  Christ  crucified  is  not 


128  The  Biology  of  the  Cross 

preached,  nothing  is  done  for  eternity.  Much 
there  may  be  of  sublimity  and  beauty  in  the 
orations  of  the  pulpit ;  but  if  Christ  crucified  be 
not  there — while  the  imagination  may  be  enter- 
tained— all  will  be  to  the  soul  only  the  beauty 
of  frost,  and  the  sublimity  of  the  desert.  Do 
you  want  this  earth  to  be  born  anew  ?  Then 
bring  it  to  the  Cross.  Do  you  wish  it  to  make 
Jesus  King  ?  Then  erect  the  Cross  in  the  heart 
of  its  commercial,  its  civic  and  its  social  life. 
Do  you  wish  it  to  drop  all  its  heart  burdens  of 
slavishness  and  come  into  the  life  wherein  there 
is  liberty  ?  Then  plant  the  Cross  in  the  midst 
of  its  sorrow  and  sin  as  the  sacrificial  oblation 
for  all  its  wickedness.  The  Cross  is  the  gate- 
way of  glory  for  all  the  race.  It  is  more  than 
deliverance  from  sin,  it  is  entrance  into  the  life 
of  God.  It  is  not  disaster,  it  is  design.  All 
nations,  kindreds,  tribes  and  tongues  are  in- 
cluded within  the  ample  fold  of  its  all-compre- 
hending sufficiency.  The  ages  to  come  and 
the  ages  past  are  to  rejoice  in  the  blessings 
which  it  confers. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


DATE  DUE 

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Demco,  Inc.  3( 

5-293 

